


Adamanteus

by RedRavens



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Loki Needs a Hug, M/M, Musical References, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Use of Steve/Tony as a stepping stone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 11:11:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2545424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedRavens/pseuds/RedRavens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adamanteus: of hard steel, iron, not to be broken. After his exile from Asgard - temporary as it may be - the last place Loki expected to find any of the Avengers is Amsterdam, granted the last thing Tony wanted after his unexpected break up with Steve was to find out that Loki was still alive and kicking, and hosting a radio show. It's not surprising they would have similar tastes, neither that they would be intimately aware of each other’s issues. Some people have got to find out that some bonds you just can’t break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**TITLE:** Adamanteus

**AUTHOR** : Wynter Ravenheart

**ARTIST** : [dumb-ways-to-live](http://dumb-ways-to-live.tumblr.com/)

**PAIRING** : A little bit of Steve/Tony and a lot of Loki/Tony

**WARNING** : Liberal use of Superhusbands [Steve/Tony] as a stepping stone for Frostiron, Hurt/Comfort

**SUMMARY** : Adamanteus: of hard steel, iron, not to be broken. After his exile from Asgard - temporary as it may be - the last place Loki expected to find any of the Avengers is Amsterdam, granted the last thing Tony wanted after his unexpected break up with Steve was to find out that Loki was still alive and kicking, and hosting a radio show. It's not surprising they would have similar tastes, neither that they would be intimately aware of each other’s issues. Some people have got to find out that some bonds you just can’t break.

**A/N** : Some people named inside are actually real. No harm or disrespect is meant to them, the only intent is to show this as a version of our world.

 

SUPER thanks to the following people: Qwanderer for beta-ing the first 2 parts [I’m horrible, horrible, no good writer and I didn’t send the rest to her!] Hedwig-dordt for checking out my failed Dutch, I owe you something big! I’ve no idea what, but I do! Songofcatharsis for letting me pick up her brain for songs!

 

Speaking of which, if you want to check out the playlist for this fic, you can check out my Spotify: [Adamanteus](http://open.spotify.com/user/redraven85/playlist/0fNZZIh5Hra8szYHJdKnZg)

 

 

**Part I - Runaway Train**

Tony washed his face again for the nth time that day, half of it was trying to stay awake and the other half was trying to watch the dirt he felt on himself, he had loved the bastard, he had truly and utterly loved the bastard, and what had he done? Had mocked him for it, had mocked his efforts at being a human being, or as close as Tony stark could be a human being.

 

He pounded on the reinforced glass again, his knuckles bruising from the force of the punch, even as his eyes refused to spill the tears he had wanted to.

 

_'Stark men are made of iron.'_

It was something Howard was always telling him as he grew up, but it was only recently that Tony had an inkling of what that meant, malleable under extreme heat, stoic, cold and unchanging but for age.

 

Tony rather thought he was more like glass, malleable under extreme heat, cold and glinting under normal circumstances and, depending on outside forces, breakable. Extremely and completely breakable.

 

He poured whiskey on the tumbler, the ice clinking on the sides, the strong smell of oak and alcohol teasing his nostrils, his mouth watering, and a powerful wave of _'WANT'_ going through his body like hot liquor.

 

He took the glass to his mouth, wanting more of the _smelltastesmelltastesmell_ of the single malt. He had promised himself he wouldn't, wouldn't lose himself to alcohol again, not since the whole Pepper break up, not since Steve had found him almost lost to the world in the worst way possible. When that had happened, alcohol had been an escape he took to the extreme. Now it was a reminder that he couldn’t always have what he wanted even if it was within’ his grasp, including Steve. He had had him, and Steve had wanted to go away, that saying about letting the birds go? Utter bullshit.

 

With shaking fingers he put the glass away, the overpowering smell of oak still on his nostrils, but the smell of alcohol dissipating, thankfully. He reclined on his seat, looking out as the Amsterdam skyline passed him by, the plane's descent so soft that he couldn't even feel it.

 

There was a chime on the speakers before a soft feminine voice peeped in clear Dutch: <Please fasten your seatbelts if you haven't already done so,> Tony blushed, the warning clearly meant to him, <we'll be arriving in Amsterdam in a few minutes, and the local time is 8am.>

Tony groaned his internal clock was still around 2am.

 

Admittedly he had ran away when it happened, he couldn't deal with Steve right now, nor with Sharon or any other of Steve's buddies, had ran away and accepted the invitation Pepper had been pushing for the past six months: a chance to speak at the G8 - now G7 thanks to motherfucking Russia - summit, a chance to go head to head on world politics where he could make a difference.

 

Yes he was running away from New York, from Steve, from everyone currently and suddenly invested in his failed relationship. Fuck them all.

 

(~o~)

 

They landed with no problems, passing through customs and going directly to car rent, his luggage would be sent to the hotel he was staying for now, he planned to take the train to Brussels for the summit a week from now, time enough to get his internal clock sorted out. He had never taken the train before, but he needed a change of pace.

 

A few words with the lady upfront and he had his favored Audi, browsing through radio stations. No J.A.R.V.I.S. for now, he couldn't take his AI also talking about Steve, better someone who had no connection at all to him.

 

<And you're listening to 102.1FM, your go-to Classic Rock radio! My name is Lukke Walker and we have a very unusual request from someone who will only identify themselves as Edwin.> Tony spluttered as he turned on the radio, half his coffee spilling on the sidewalk as he turned in the last moment to the car window, what.the.hell. Oh his AI would be in so much trouble if he had done what Tony thought he had done!

 

<So Edwin's suffering from a broken heart, and would like something to cheer him up.> He was going to kill J.A.R.V.I.S. <I'm not gonna do that, Edwin, I'm gonna make you cry your heart out first, get those bad feelings out, then we'll work on fixing it, in my not-so-humble opinion, music makes everything better, including a broken heart.>

The guy stopped talking as a pretty known tone started playing, Tony cursed as McCartney started singing Yesterday.

He was definitely going to kill J.A.R.V.I.S.

 

(~o~)

 

The current song was almost on countdown, Whitesnake blaring on the speakers, yet he still had almost two full minutes.

 

He picked up his phone, going through the new messages from some of his contractors, skipping all messages about SHIELD and HYDRA and how almost everyone had been pissed at him, well he had warned them! Peasants, the lot of them!

 

Loki breathed in and out slowly, donning the personage of Lukke S. Walker again, being the radio host for a capital in the so-called 'old world' had its perks, but changing mindsets when some of his old contacts actually needed his expertise, well it would've been easier with his magic than with willpower alone, but then Odin had pointed out that he relied too much on magic, and Loki had been trying to prove a point to himself here, punishment notwithstanding.

 

He turned to the technical table, upped the microphone, and lowered the song as countdown reached zero, his voice changing slightly from his usual tone, making it more pleasing to listeners, he began speaking in perfect Dutch with a bit of a German accent, <and that was The Beatles with Yesterday then Joy Division with Love Will Tear Us Apart and we ended with Whitesnake's Fool For Your Lovin' and I do hope you're feeling a bit better now, Edwin! I debated between the next two songs, but decided to go with the more upbeat one, so I do hope you're grateful, because I got in trouble with my editor over this one! Here we are with Motley Crue's Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away. Here's hoping your broken heart's healed.>

(~o~)

 

On the other side of the radio Tony laughed hysterically to himself, Steve had hated that song!

 

(~o~)

 

He spent the next two days waking up early so he could listen Lukke talk, the guy's voice was pleasing, it had a rhythm to it that made Tony relax, not to mention _how_ he talked, full of himself and yet with enough irreverence and dark humor to make Tony laugh. There was a certain situation - an elder lady calling him, asking for a very specific song - that showed he was also respectful when prompted and when not dealing with idiots.

 

It seemed like someone Tony could talk to, someone he could - potentially - have an interesting conversation with, someone whose wit and sense of humor could keep his mind off more unpleasant things.

 

It was on the third day that Tony decided to see who was behind the voice; radio networks had sites now didn't they? They had to, if they wanted their DJs to be known, and who wouldn’t want to be known? Admittedly sometimes he wished he wasn't, what with the fiasco in his love life, but sometimes, like The Summit, he could do wonderful things being well known.

 

He grabbed his phone, making a mental note to work on a better battery again, and clicked a few times, frowning at the screen and, after taking J.A.R.V.I.S. out of mute, ordering face recognition.

 

"That’s consistent with one Loki Odinsson, sir."

 

"That's what I thought, wasn't he dead?"

 

"Thor Odinsson has mentioned the death of his brother in numerous occasions," J.A.R.V.I.S. said, a series of clips showing on Tony's phone, Thor saying over and over that Loki was dead, on the site it related 'Lukke' had been with the station for at least two years, on his spare time he liked to tell stories to children in the local library. Tony wondered - in the distant parts of his mind - if the children of Netherlands were all doomed to be evil.

 

On the radio Lukke was finishing with his programming, R.E.M.'s Orange crush playing before the advertising and then the other guy Tony didn't like took over, it was 9am, and Tony was still on his pj's. "Fuck!"

 

(~o~)

 

Loki stretched as he stepped out of the studio; he had promised his kids they could have the story behind The Devil's Trill, though he had his concerns if the explicit details of a real deal with the devil were appropriate for eight year olds.

 

"Say," a voice said in front of him, in perfect English, and Loki realized how lost in thought he had been not to see the man in front of him. "You wouldn't happen to know a tall, evil and alien conqueror, would you?"

 

Loki arched an eyebrow, looking at the red and gold bracelet on Stark's wrist. "If he happens to be purple, then yes, I do know him, if he happens to be green with a metal face then I'm terribly sorry, Stark, but Victor's not tall at all."

 

"Very funny Old King Cole, mind coming with me? I don't wanna cause a scene."

 

"If you can promise me that I'll be back in time for story time at the library, we can go wherever you want; I don't mind being seen with a handsome man." Loki said, deliberately batting his eyelashes and grabbing Tony's arm. Tony took a step back, his face going through puzzled thorough disgusted and ending on the awkward ‘please-stop’ motion.

 

Loki laughed, letting go of the man with a wicked grin and starting to walk in front of him, in a seemingly random direction.

 

It took half a second for Tony to catch up, his armored hand on Loki's arm this time. The trickster just gave him a relaxed smile, "relax, we're going to a nearby café, I'm hungry and you're paying."

 

"What are you doing here?"

 

"Working, obviously. If you're looking for nefarious reasons I'm not the one you should be talking to and by the way, you're incredibly late."

 

"Late for what?" Tony asked, gritting his teeth and resisting the urge to tighten his hand on Loki's arm, mostly because he knew it wouldn't do much to the alien god.

 

"I had a bet going on with one of my associates about when you 'heroes' would find out about my presence. I'm disappointed, even if I was proven right about your lack of passive surveillance."

 

"Associates?"

 

"Yes, we'll get to them in a minute, after we order," Loki said, entering the café up on Langebrugsteeg*, ordering a cappuccino for himself, along with the goat cheese sandwich, a slice of their sinful apple pie and another of the cherry tart. He grabbed his tray, weaving through the area full with sitting patrons and to the little deck: a tiny piece of land, surrounded by black iron, with comfortable seats, made of old wooden crates, with cushions on top, overlooking the river.

 

He grabbed his phone, sending a text to one of his associates before Stark joined him.

 

"How much do you know about the circumstances surrounding me, or was this a random encounter? I had heard through the grapevine you were going to the summit in Brussels."

 

"Last I heard you were dead on elf-land." Tony replied, keeping the conversation in English, least they scare one of the patrons.

 

"So you know nothing and this was a chance encounter," Loki summarized, arching an eyebrow and daring the hero to contradict him, which he didn't. "Fury's going to love this."

 

"Funny you should mention him," Tony said, indulging with coffee and superb made cookies, a moment later he felt his pocket buzz with the tone of his phone, with the way it buzzed he knew it was Fury.

 

"See, you better answer that." Loki pointed out, taking out his own phone and displaying his messages with Fury, Tony took it carefully, listening to the Director on the other line.

 

Loki smiled to himself, wondering what Stark would do, would he go to the deep end and demand his head like Barton would have done? Would Stark want to experiment on him like the ones in Russia had wanted to? Would he, wonder of wonders, leave Loki alone?

 

He wouldn't bet on the last one. He watched between one bite and another as Stark tried to control his temper so as not to shout with Fury, though he could understand, Fury had a particular way of dealing with things that made others lose their cool.

 

He was brought out of his musings by Stark giving him back his phone, his hands clenched in rage.

 

"So you're here for good?" He asked, glaring at Loki.

 

"No, I'm here on loan for the next two hundred years or so, after that enough time should have passed, in theory, to advance your civilization. Regardless of what happens, after that time I should go to Vanaheimr for some more consulting before being set free.

 

"Fuck, I don't believe this, you're left off with a slap on the wrist? After the stunt you've pulled?"

 

"I wouldn't say that, no, scot-free is not the way of Asgard, though my sentence does have some perks." He raised his steaming cup, glancing pointedly at the food around them.

 

"Jesus what the hell is wrong with Fury?!" Tony said, his voice slightly raised, he needed to get out before he did something he would not regret. He left some bills on the wooden crate, getting up and out of the establishment before he could re-think his actions.

 

Loki just shrugged, enjoying his mid-morning meal; he had time before he had to see the kids.

 

(~o~)

 

He got back to his hotel with a maelstrom of rage and madness running through his veins, he couldn't believe Fury had accepted the alien god, couldn't believe that the world-so-called-leaders would just accept the god back! And for what? To 'advance their civilization?' If the sort of advanced civilization Loki had talked about resembled in any way Asgard, then Tony wanted no part in it.

 

He opened his laptop, connecting his phone and ordering J.A.R.V.I.S. to call the tower. His rage only escalated as the first person he saw was Rogers.

 

"Tony? Where are you? Listen we need to talk-" Steve begun, and Tony had no time to notice the bangs under his eyes, how disheveled he looked.

 

"No, I need to talk, and it's not with you. Where's Thor?" Tony interrupted, glaring at the super soldier.

 

"Tony-"

 

"Where.Is.Thor.Rogers? Am I talking to the walls here? J.A.R.V.I.S. get me Thor!"

 

"He's on his way, sir. He was with Ms. Foster."

 

"I don't care if he was with his own fucking mother!" Tony shouted, adjusting the camera so he could pace in peace, he couldn't stay still. "I just got information on that crazy brother of his.  Fuck it, where's the rest of the team?"

 

"I've also sent for them, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted before his creator could go on a rant, "ETA is two minutes on Thor, one on Ms. Romanoff and three for Messes Barton and Banner, I've also sent for Mr. Rhodes since he's on location."

 

That stopped Tony short for a moment, the inventor blinking owlishly at the laptop screen, at least some good news, he would call Rhodey later, after he finished with briefing.

 

"Tony, what is this about?" Steve asked again.

 

"I got information on Loki, information we should've known already."

 

"What information?" Natasha asked as she entered the living room, she glanced between the two men, from Steve's tired frame to Tony's enraged one.

 

"Let's wait for the others, Agent, I don't wanna repeat myself." Tony said, finally sitting on the bed and resting his head on his hands.

 

"Tony, what happened? Where are you?"

 

"I'm working, that's what I'm doing." Tony replied, his voice cold, brooking no argument. Steve was not one to be told no so easily, though, Tony could see his squared shoulders, his jaw setting for an argument, he had seen that same face a thousand times already and his instinctual reaction was to flinch from it, rather than engage.

 

"Tony-"

 

"Shut it, soldier." Tony snapped, at the end of his rope. "I don't want to talk about what happened, I won't talk about what happened. The only reason I'm even looking at you now is because I need to talk to the team as a whole, which you're a part of." The 'unfortunately' was left out, though he was damn well sure all the people currently listening were aware of it.

 

There was more to be said, but Tony wanted to be off the conference as soon as possible, and the discussion would take enough time already and keep his mind off-things. He sighed in relief to see Bruce, Clint and Rhodey walk in, with Thor right behind him.

 

"What is it, my friend?"

 

"Yeah, see Thunderstruck, funny thing happened earlier today. I met your brother at the city I'm in at the moment, he's hosting a radio show. What the hell's going on Thor?"

 

Tony watched in horror as Thor seemed to deflate in front of him, seemed to take on a weariness not his, a guilt that was not his, not truly.

 

"You've met Loki?" Thor asked, his shoulders sagging in what Tony choose to see as relief instead of grief. "Can you tell me where he is?"

 

"We're in Amsterdam right now, Thor. I shall be leaving in a few days, but... What the hell man?"

 

"This is Loki's punishment."

 

"What freedom and a good job?" Hawkeye said, staring at Thor as though seeing him for the first time.

 

"His magic free only because it has to be, his every step watched, building a kingdom he helped to destroy to start with, even if under duress. There's many things to be talked about, Iron Man, but I would need you here to explain some things, I'd rather have this conversation where none else could see us."

 

"He said he's been here for two years already, Thor. Did you know that?"

 

"I did, though I was not privy of where in the globe he was, that information was kept from me."

 

"Yeah, I noticed. But why wouldn't you tell us? I thought we were friends, Thor." Tony said.

 

"And what would you have done? Hunt him down and let him rot in a cell?" He ignored Hawkeye's mumble of 'it would serve him right,' he would not throttle his friends. "Your world-government knows about this, have always known about this. Loki is free to roam Midgard as long as he does not use magic upon another soul, as long as he aids the Council, he is free to call this world home for the time being."

 

"And if he does use magic on another person?"

 

"Then he'll be exiled from the world-tree and thrown to the mercy of those who grabbed him in the first place." Thor shrugged as if the matter was closed. "We were lenient because he was under duress from a bigger foe, but he has caused enough damage throughout Yggdrasil to be granted freedom."

 

"I'm sorry, is he not hosting a radio show in Amsterdam? What do you call that?"

 

"Loki is paying his due. Though Midgard has not suffered the most out of the nine, it has suffered enough due to Loki and due to your own ignorance of the Nine as to be granted the boom of Loki's knowledge first, if you had refused he would've been sent to Vanaheimr to help them, as they've been the one realm who has suffered more loss out of the Nine."

 

"So..." Tony said, still refusing to glance at anyone but Thor and Natasha.

 

"Director Fury knows he's on earth, the world council knows he's on earth, every so called secret agency that has dealings with the world council knows he's on earth and is using him to the best of their abilities, so what use would be in telling you he's here besides grudges and forceful exile from Midgard?" Thor said, though his voice did not change in volume, his tone was graver and graver, and more forceful as he talked, Tony couldn't help but think he was kinda bad at diplomacy, regardless of how well he liked Thor, his friend could be obtuse and approach diplomacy like a warrior.

 

"Is that everything for his 'incarceration'? Those are the only terms? No magic and help out the people?" Hawkeye said, staring at Thor.

 

"Those are the basic ones, yes, there's more but I was not privy, was not needed for that discussion."

 

"Who was, then? Who was privy to that discussion? Why did Tony have to tell us and not you?" His voice even, but Bruce still slipped his hand with the archer's, giving it a gentle squeeze.

 

"The World council, a few world leaders, Colonel Nick Fury from SHIELD, Lance Hunter from STRIKE and Eugène-Richard Gasana, President of the UN Security Council*."

 

They were all silent as they digested the sudden information. Everyone knew but them, the people they were supposed to protect, who they trusted to direct them as needed, knew and yet refused to say a word on such an important enemy.

 

"My-" Thor grimaced, in what Tony could call nothing but grief, and corrected himself, "Loki has been as contained as he can be, as a Mage."

 

"We're supposed to trust your word, Thor?" Tony said, he could feel his trust in Thor breaking, still unable to comprehend how his friend could keep such information from them, he needed more than Thor's word.

 

"Nay," Thor denied, knowing this would be something he couldn't just shrug off, Loki had hurt them deep, "trust Heimdall's watch, trust the device attached to him, made by your own technology, trust the sigil tattooed on his skin to monitor his magic. You can verify them yourself if you need to, my friend." He said looking directly at Tony.

 

"I'll contact him again, then." Tony said, unwilling to continue with the current conversation, they'd hash out the details out later, though Fury had already told him some, though how much of it was the truth was left to be seen. "You don't happen to know of any bets between Loki and Fury, do you?" He asked on a whim.

 

"I am no longer privy to Loki's life." Thor denied.

 

"Right, we'll talk when I get back then, I mean it Thor." Tony promised before ending the call.

 

(~o~)

 

The next day Tony greeted Loki again in front of the station, crossed arms and an arched eyebrow as the Trickster sighed at the sight of him.

 

"What do you want _now_ , Stark?" Loki asked, clearly exasperated, well Tony could and couldn't blame him, on one hand he was the villain, on the other hand the guy had had the worst caller today, to the point where Loki had hung up on him, stating he took proper and well-worded requests, and he refused to talk to rude people. Well Tony wasn't planning on being rude today, not until he could figure out the trickster's game.

 

"Just talk, I promise." He said, giving his best press-smile and raising his hands in mock surrender.

 

Loki sighed, his mood sour, but nodded.

 

They walked at a leisure pace, in silence after the initial exchange ("I talked to Thor about your sentence" & "please shut up, we'll talk when we get there") and Tony realized that it might be a tad difficult to get information from Loki today than the day before, but hindsight was 20/20 as the saying goes.

 

They entered the same small cafe again, sitting outside again but in a seat closer to the river, Tony with an express and an assortment of oatmeal cookies, Loki with a late a croissant and beer bread. The Trickster absolutely unimpressed with his selection. "Talk."

 

"Right." Tony said, frowning slightly and wondering where he could start that wouldn't have Loki biting his head off, if either literally or metaphorically he had no idea.

 

"Talk, Stark," Loki sighed, mentions of his former family were a guaranteed mood killed, not that there was much to kill with in that bloody fantastic day.

 

"So," Tony started cautiously, adding a bit of sugar to his espresso and eyeing Loki's croissant. "I called Thor yesterday, and he told me some of your sentence."

 

"Thor knows nothing of my sentence." Loki said, not looking at Tony, his gaze on the bread.

 

"Right, he told me you still have your magic, but you're being watched 24/7 and helping build the NYC back? If that's the case why are you not at NYC?"

 

"As I've told you, Thor knows nothing of my sentencing." Loki said again, staring at Stark, the man was as curious as Fury had told him he would be, "my magic is not bound only because it cannot be, to bind it would be the equivalent of a lobotomy here in Midgard, but I cannot use it, not on another soul besides my own, and they use the broader aspect of 'soul' which means, roughly, every other material or immaterial being, be they living, dead, in-between or on another plane of existence, be they live breathing, akin to a tree, or dead and processed, such as the stools we're sitting on or the technology you so thrive with."

 

"Wow, impressive binding, like, you cannot use it at all?"

 

"I can use it on my person, and I can study it." Loki shrugged, as if his gift was not cut off from him by his own nature, "but if I use it on another thing, be they living, dead, spiritual or processed, then I'll be punished."

 

"Punished how?"

 

"I will not tell you that part, that's between me and the heads of your world."

 

"Right, right," Tony agreed, absent minded, he would have to pester Fury. "And New York? You can't actually help build anything all the way back here, you know?"

 

"Again, it's not to help, as you put 'build New York City,' it's helping build Midgard as a whole, Asgard being a sovereign realm composed of a whole planet, or what's left of it, does not recognize separate governments in just one planet, which is why the UN, SHIELD, STRIKE and the World Security Council had to step in as if they were the official representatives of Midgard."

 

"Which is why you’re all the way back here?"

 

"Yes, I've been counseling SHIELD and STRIKE and CERN* for the past two years, they've learnt the hard way to listen to what I say and not second-guess everything."

 

"You've been with CERN? How come I never heard of it? And give me one contribution you've made to SHIELD!" Tony demanded, crossing his arms and looking at Loki, surely someone would have picked up on Loki's contribution.

 

"The fact you weren't able to find me even with all the hacking you've done since Hydra showed up on the radar is proof enough, also, Hydra itself. I've predicted their rise after six months of consulting. That was a year and a half ago, mind you, it took time for Fury and Hunter to relax in my presence and trust I know what I'm doing." Loki said, spirits lifted and, as odd as it sounded, he had Stark to thank for it.

 

"You're being oddly forthcoming,"

 

Loki shrugged, leaning against the iron fence, "I've got nothing to lose, Stark, and Fury trusts you enough, besides that's all information he could freely give you, if you asked, but you won't because you let your personal vendetta against him cloud your judgment."

 

Tony stared at him for a moment, trying to recall why being nice and non-confrontational with Loki was a good idea, the guy had no filters, and could zoom-in on the heart of the problem with a moment's glance. Not unlike Tony himself, actually.

 

"Of course," Loki continued after a moment, "I've taken some lengths to keep myself from using Stark Industries technology as much as possible, only using your analog versions when I have to use anything, so your construct had no backdoor to try and access or trace me."

 

"So when J.A.R.V.I.S. called the station...?"

 

"He did? When?"

 

"Four days ago, as Edwin." Tony smiled, disbelieving of the coincidence, if coincidence it was, he knew J.A.R.V.I.S. wouldn't keep a secret this big from him, it was not on his coding.

 

"Ah yes, that one, one of our interns picked up the call," Loki shrugged again, unconcerned, "we decided it was a good idea to do something about the 'broken heart disease' the listener was facing, therefore we offered some pseudo comfort songs."

 

"I feel like I should know that reference."

 

"I'm slightly disappointed that you haven't figured it out." Loki grinned, quickly hiding it with his cup of coffee.

 

"Come on give me another bone," Tony asked, crossing his legs and leaning forward, he knew that line. "Early Green Day? MXDX?"

 

"I'm offended in their behalf, Stark, really?"

 

"Oh come on, that song must've been older than the early 00's!"

 

"Mid 90's." Loki tried to smirk, but it quickly turned into a pleased smile, it wasn't many people that got his musical references, he started to tap the rhythm with his foot, "okay I'll only do this once, you better appreciate it!" He cleared his throat, starting to sing the middle of the song "She said it's cold, It feels like Independence Day, And I can't break away from this parade, But there's got to be an opening, Somewhere here in front of me, Through this maze of ugliness and greed."

 

He watched, more than pleased to see Stark's face light up in recognition, easily picking up the tune and carrying it though the song, leaving Loki as a sort-of backing vocal, but the god couldn't find it in him to mind, "And I seen the sun up ahead, At the county line bridge, Sayin' all there's good and nothingness is dead, We'll run until she's out of breath, She ran until there's nothin' left, She hit the end-it's just her window ledge."

 

Tony felt the smile tugging at his lips, it had been ages since he had listened to The Wallflowers, longer still since anything not anger-related had played on his workshop, he wondered why for a moment as the last month of his life flashed by him. Trying to talk to his lover only to be brushed off, trying to find something that would interest Steve in their lives, trying to help Barnes and even going to one of Wilson's meetings, only to see Steve out with Carter, instead.

 

He wasn't ashamed to say he tagged them, looking for a reason why Steve had apparently lost all interest in him and later on had J.A.R.V.I.S. tail Steve through the security cameras. Steve never kissed her, they never wandered into a hotel for a few hours, and he never even held her hand. But the look on his face, it spelled something completely different, it was the way Steve used to look at him.

 

He had tried to reach Steve again, asking after his paintings, asking him out in lunches, even, though Tony rarely ate lunch. Tony had gone out with him a total of twice a month, while he met Sharon at least three times a week, of course things came to a head, and of course Tony left. He didn't blame Sharon in the least - he doubted Steve had told her they were lovers - he blamed himself, he was a coward in relationships, he never quite knew how to act around people, how to make them like him or take a personal interest in him. Hell he was good at press conferences, at making corporates like him or - more accurately - the representative of Stark Industries, he never managed to transfer that skill to his personal life.

 

There was a red dot near him.

 

He slowly came out of his reverie and looked at the red ripe strawberry in front of him.

 

"I seem to have lost you there, Doom and Gloom."

 

"How do you even know the Rolling stones?" Tony asked, ripped from his bad memories as if by force, not that he would complain, he needed the distance.

 

"I work on the radio, Stark." Loki said, rolling his eyes.

 

"Say, would you mind checking in with me?" Tony asked, changing the subject and knowing he would have to go soon and he was loathe to lose Loki, he wanted the Deity on his radar, even if he apparently had SHIELD and a whole lot of people keeping him in sight, of course Loki had to make it difficult for him and not use Stark Tech, the asshole.

 

"I'm flattered, but I'm not looking for a relationship at the moment." Loki smiled, crossing his arms.

 

"You're an asshole, you know that?" Tony said, shaking his head.

 

"You know, I'd call you Echo & The Bunnymen, but I've never actually kissed you before." He grinned sharply at Tony, enjoying the way the man gapped at him.

 

"How do you even know that reference?

 

"Again, I work on the radio, plus I had to do something while Odin and the World Council discussed my fate, ended up on Spotify and Wikipedia." Loki shrugged, drinking his latte, and eyeing the oatmeal cookies resting besides Stark. "Are you gonna eat that?"

 

"Yes!" Tony hissed, protecting his food from the bottomless pit in front of him. "Order your own."

 

The god had the gall to pout at him before giving Tony a shit-eating grin. "Fine, I'll also give your answer tomorrow during the show, then." He arched an eyebrow at Tony's mildly exasperated face.

 

"You must already have an answer, yes or no, why are you dragging this, it's a simple request?"

 

"I do, I just need to think of the proper song to play it to, if I'm being forced to meet you, then you'll have to listen to my show."

 

"You're an asshole." Tony said, pointing a coffee spoon at him before pointedly taking a cookie, smirking at Loki's puppy eyes, he had seen Thor's and Pepper's and even, in one memorable occasion, Rhodey's. Loki couldn't hold a candle to any of them.

 

(~o~)

 

Tony Stark cursed the day he met the Trickster as Anytime At All by The Beatles started to play on his phone, dedicated to one Edwin Verhogen. The Little Shit.

 

(~o~)

 

"You're an asshole." Tony said, as soon as he saw Loki exiting the building.

 

"You're quite welcome!" Loki grinned at him, and Tony had the impression of looking at a shark before the inevitable deadly attack, but Loki kept back from him.

 

"Yes, well, does that mean I get your phone number?" Tony asked, wiggling his eyebrows; it was incredibly easy to fall back on his old days and just flirt with Loki.

 

"As long as you don't give it to your cohorts, I don't mind," Loki shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets, "I need someone who gets my references anyway."

 

"I think I should be offended, but I'm making a point of ignoring it for now."

 

Loki grinned again, as sharp as a shark and just as deadly, to the point Tony had to stop himself from taking a step back, he had to remind himself that he was in this situation purely to get information out of Loki and to see what his plans were. "You should probably stop that," he grimaced, unable to hide his unease.

 

Loki just looked at him in blatant disappointment, the smile slipping from his face as if someone has washed it away, leaving the deity pouting at him. "You're no fun, Stark."

 

"You're creepy like that, Sharman," Tony said, picking up Loki's phone when it was offered, scrunching his nose at Apple Tech.

 

"I'm more of a Space Oddity, really."

 

"I'm gonna start calling you Ziggy Stardust."

 

"Please don't, Bowie looked much better with red hair than I ever did."

 

"The fact you recognize those references will never _not_ be creepy."

 

"I'll trust your judgment on this issue." Loki shrugged, glancing at Stark through the corner of his eyes. It was, it was odd how easy it was to talk to Stark, he usually didn't have that sort of camaraderie with his enemies, if one could exclude Siff.

 

They walked to the same cafe as the days before, each lost in thought of things to do, of the lives they had to live, Tony thought it oddly soothing. Maybe he could make a friend out of the deity yet.

 

"You're here for the summit, right?" Loki asked as they sat once again in the cafe, a plate of assorted pastries between them. "I didn't think they would allow non-government officials there."

 

"They usually don't," Tony shrugged, washing down a bit of puffy pastry with coffee. "Stark Industries was invited due to our cutting edge green tech; everyone's interested in green tech as they should be, mind you. Pepper and one of my R&D managers was supposed to go, I decided to take some time out and come at the last minute."

 

"The thing with Edwin was real then?"

 

"I rather not talk about it, if it's all the same with you," Tony replied, looking away, Loki just nodded to himself, knowing that the matters of the heart were sensitive to begin with and unwilling to pester Stark on such subject.

 

"All right, give me a rundown of what's going to happen on the summit, green energy fields are interesting."

 

"What, a consultation, Mr. Odinsson?" Tony jeered, relieved.

 

"Please don't call me that, it's Walker." Loki grimaced, "and not a full consult, just tell me the basics if you don't mind. I can't very well do my job if you humans end up killing each other due to abrupt climate change."

 

"No details, just the general rundown."

 

Loki agreed easily, he didn't need the details, he needed to know if they had functional tech worthy of his attention. Tony did have it, and the two of them ended up discussing the pros and con of such machinery, ending up on a heated discussion of physics, math, environmental actions and Loki going on a rant mid discussion about humans being hopeless when it came to saving their own home, since they still didn't have the needed know-how to colonize other planets.

 

Tony watched, fascinated, that someone could still keep up with him, and it only took an alien from another realm to do it.


	2. Chapter 2

**TITLE:** Adamanteus

**AUTHOR** : Wynter Ravenheart

**ARTIST** : [dumb-ways-to-live](http://dumb-ways-to-live.tumblr.com/)

**PAIRING** : A little bit of Steve/Tony and a lot of Loki/Tony

**WARNING** : Liberal use of Superhusbands [Steve/Tony] as a stepping stone for Frostiron, Hurt/Comfort

**SUMMARY** : Adamanteus: of hard steel, iron, not to be broken. After his exile from Asgard - temporary as it may be - the last place Loki expected to find any of the Avengers is Amsterdam, granted the last thing Tony wanted after his unexpected break up with Steve was to find out that Loki was still alive and kicking, and hosting a radio show. It's not surprising they would have similar tastes, neither that they would be intimately aware of each other’s issues. Some people have got to find out that some bonds you just can’t break.

**A/N** : Some people named inside are actually real. No harm or disrespect is meant to them, the only intent is to show this as a version of our world.

 

SUPER thanks to the following people: Qwanderer for beta-ing the first 2 parts [I’m horrible, horrible, no good writer and I didn’t send the rest to her!] Hedwig-dordt for checking out my failed Dutch, I owe you something big! I’ve no idea what, but I do! Songofcatharsis for letting me pick up her brain for songs!

 

Speaking of which, if you want to check out the playlist for this fic, you can check out my Spotify: [Adamanteus](http://open.spotify.com/user/redraven85/playlist/0fNZZIh5Hra8szYHJdKnZg)

 

**Part II - Turn the Page**

 

The Summit was, in a word, exhausting. It wasn't boring, far from it, but too much human stimulation for Tony’s personal comfort. Talking to world leaders about subjects they were not specialists on was tiring, trying to convince them of something they thought was utter bullshit was even worse, but Tony and his team - really the team that was supposed to go along with Pepper in the first place - had somehow done it.

 

He hadn't relaxed at the time though, still in the spotlight, still expecting to have to impress someone else. He hadn't even stayed in Brussels for long, after the Summit had ended, heading straight up for the airport and back home, three messages sent in quick succession to Natasha, Pepper and, wonder of wonders, Loki. Somehow the Trickster had predicted what would be the concern of five of the leaders, along with how to reassure one of them, how he had done it, Tony had no idea.

 

His phone beeped as soon as he landed, messages of 'welcome back' from Pepper and Rhodey, along with a cheeky 'you missed girls' night out' from Natasha and a message he couldn't decipher the mood of, from Loki, a simple 'fare thee well, may Freyja smile upon you.'

 

He would have to ask Thor, Tony decided as he rode the elevator to his penthouse. He had J.A.R.V.I.S. lock everyone out, well everyone except Pepper and Natasha and only if they were alone, all of Steve's stuff should've been sent back to either his floor or to his flat in Brooklyn.

 

That was the downside of coming back, everything came back too, every concern, every anger and heartbreak even if they were muted. It was hard to reconcile the fact that Steve hadn't, technically, cheated on him, not physically, but that's a part where they differed: Tony never counted physical intimacy as cheating, while Steve did, he always counted emotional intimacy and proximity with cheating, while Steve didn't. Sex you could get with everyone and it didn't have to mean anything, it often didn't.

 

Using someone else's body to get off was an art Tony had perfected after, of course, perfecting giving pleasure to those same bodies. Having an orgasm didn't mean much to him, all things considered, but sharing his life, intimate thoughts, sharing his ups and downs, his frustrations, his delights. It was something Tony couldn't do with everyone, he reserved that part of himself for lovers and best friends.

 

His phone beeped again, Steve's message showing on the screen, a simple 'we need to talk,' well fuck him! Yes they needed to talk, but not now, it Tony had a say not ever, but he disliked unfinished business, and after their time together Steve might not deserves enclosure - on his biased view – but it wouldn't be right to keep it from him. And there was Steve’s morality rubbing on him. Stupid.

 

He entered his penthouse with a tired sigh, Happy trailing after him with luggage and an extra suitcase with souvenirs for a few select people. He snorted as he saw the mop of red curly hair on his white sofa, his TV on and displaying -

 

"Natasha, we have guests over, turn off the gay porn," Tony shouted at her as he headed for his room, a red-faced Happy trailing after him.

 

"You are absolutely no fun," Natasha complained, trailing after him; these days Natasha let him hear the pit-patter of her feet when she walked and let him in on her world. It had been an unfortunate incident where they had ended up stranded on an island due to the whims of the super villain of the week. "See, when I befriended Tony Stark I was expecting the life of luxury and parties he advertised, not to be left alone on girl's night out and be replaced by an undead villain, of all things!"

 

Tony snorted again, starting to unpack as Happy beat a hasty retreat from the penthouse. He waited for the vibration of his pocket before turning to Natasha. "Ask what you want to know, Happy's out of the house."

 

"Give me the rundown of what happened," Natasha demanded at once, sitting cross-legged on Tony's bed.

 

"I methim on my third day. He was flirty, almost hyperactive and forthcoming up to a degree. He also keeps a schedule, visiting the local library twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays to tell children stories. How many of his stories are real or fabricated remains unknown; I'll have to run that by Thor when I meet him for our heart-to-heart.

 

"He's charming," Tony continued; "I'm not sure how smart he is, IQ wise, but he can definitely keep up a technological conversation with me, he'sinterested in international politics and seems to really enjoy classic rock. He's witty and can zero in on an issue at a moment's notice, with very few clues."

 

"You planning on keeping in contact?" Natasha asked.

 

"I already have his phone number." Tony smirked at her. Yes, he would keep in contact with Loki, just to reassure himself, and if they got along, well, no one needed to know - no, some people didn't need to know. "He's fun to be around."

 

"Introduce me sometime, then." Natasha shrugged. She trusted Tony up to a point in this matter; she hoped he knew when to ask forher help. "Oh hey, Steve's looking for you, and by looking I mean he's moping restlessly on his own floor and has been baking nonstop for the past five days."

 

Steve was a stress-baker, to the delight of the rest of the team.

 

"Steve can go and stuff his cupcakes up his ass, I'll talk to him later!" Tony snapped at her, turning away. Natasha knew him well enough to know it was nother he was specifically targeting, butthe situation as a whole, and she had decided long ago that she would keep her opinions to herself when it came to that disastrous relationship - only she had always thought it would be Steve she would have to comfort and not Tony.

 

"Yeah, not sure he would like shit-covered cupcakes," she mused, shrugging it away. "Want me to send for Thor?"

 

"You mean if I want you talking to my AI and see if he can send Thor up?" Tony asked instead, turning to her again. "Yeah, sure; I want you here, though."

 

"You want a three-way? I thought you were invested in Loki now, Tony," Natasha said slyly, letting him know it was a joke.

 

"That is disturbing on so many levels it's not even funny," Tony said, staring as she walked away from him.

 

(~o~)

 

As the fates would have it, Thor was visiting Doctor Foster in London and they had to wait for him to get back. His visits ranged from a day or two up to a three full weeks, meaning Tony _couldn't_ use Thor's absence to avoid Steve for longer than a day. Why couldn't he just be left to mope on his own? He had left Steve alone to mope!

 

Tony decided to have whatever conversation they needed to have on neutral ground, where one or the two of them could just walk away if they wanted to.

 

He decided on the Avenger Manor, a place under renovations and which Tony fully planned to give to the Avengers, in part to get them out of his hair, and in part because it really would be a better center of operations.

 

The landscape was also under renovations, with the crew planting more oaks, elms and maple trees to go along with cherries, acacias and the white ashes previously planted. It was a peaceful place.

 

He heard the shuffle of feet behind him, softer and more careful than the workers. He hadn't expected Steve to find him so fast.

 

"Tony?"

 

He thought about being sassy, being hurtful, being ironic or sarcastic, but he would have time to be whoever he wanted later - now he had to be who he didn't want to be: Steve's former/current lover, a hurt man who didn't know how to communicate with the people he liked, least of all his significant other.

 

Tony turned his head to look at Steve approaching, the super soldier setting his jaw, eyes fixed on Tony, as if he could order this situation fixed, when even Tony knew that his own flaws would take time and care to be bent and shaped to something that could work.

 

"Have you ever wanted someone so much, that you'd do anything to get them?" Tony started, because if they were having a break up then Tony wanted to get everything out. "You'd compromise who you are, the way you think and even your own side interests to get them?" He ran a hand through his hair, wishing he could just escape this conversation.

 

"I've known that kind of obsession before, Tony, how unhealthy it can be." And he had, back when he had been scrawny and underdeveloped and all he wanted was to get into the military. Obstinacy, something he and Tony had in spades.

 

"I'm not sure if you know this, Steve, but you were pretty much it for me, the one I'd looked up to forever, the one I was supposed to work to catch up to, the one I worked so hard to woo, to have as my own, an anchor or something like that, I don't even know." He waved the thoughts away, still not looking at Steve, shame burning in his veins as he sat on the grass.

 

"You shouldn't have to work to be with your lover, Tony," Steve replied, sitting next to him, wondering if he should touch Tony at all. It was moments like this that brought into stark contrast how much easier it would be to just _be_ with Sharon - she was easier to understand, easier to talk to. "It shouldn't have to be so hard to get some of their time, and you shouldn't have to try and bribe them to spend time with you. That's not how a relationship works."

 

"I know," Tony replied, staring at his hands. "I tried to get your attention so many times. I thought sometimes you took me more for a pest than for your lover."

 

"You did? When? I honestly cannot remember, Tony," Steve said, trying to get his thumping heart under control. All Steve remembered of the last month was a few invitations to work alongside Tony, things he honestly had no interest in. He wasn't a man of science, he wasn't a man that enjoyed discovering the answers of the universe. That was all Tony and Bruce.

 

"When did you figure out you were in love with her?" Tony asked.

 

"When I started to notice the little details - how she tucks her hair when she's enjoying herself, how she holds her gun when she's training, how her eyes light up at the sight of a pumpkin latte, gosh I'm so sorry, Tony." He touched the engineer's leg, only to see Tony flinch away from him and that hurt; Tony had never flinched with him before.

 

He chanced a look at the engineer, only to see those brown chocolate eyes full of tears, clean drops making their way to his chin, he wasn't sure if Tony even knew he was crying. God, what a mess!

 

"I'm sorry," Steve whispered, knowing his touch would not be welcomed right then, but wanting to touch anyway. He knew he didn’t have the right to do it, not anymore.

 

“The fact that you think 'I'm sorry' is enough." Tony said back, his voice raised as he trailed off in disbelief.

 

"What do you expect me to say, Tony? That I blame you for my heart straying from you? For the fact that I want to kiss someone else and not you? I don't blame you," he added softly, "I blame myself for being an idiot, for needing someone else when I have you right here!"

 

"Had," Tony corrected, squeezing his eyes shut. "You had me, Steve."

 

"Tony, we can work this out," he pleaded, squeezing Tony's knee. "Please let me make it up to you in some way."

 

"This is not something we can just 'work through'," Tony whispered, his fingers making quotations marks as he hastily wiped his face. Tony couldn't just pretend he trusted Steve, not anymore. "To me, that's a breach of trust, that you'd look for companionship, that you'd decide to seek someone else for companionship instead of looking to me, like you were supposed to."

 

"You shouldn't have to pester your partner to spend time with you, Tony. I shouldn't have to beg for you to pay attention to us!"

 

"I shouldn't have to either, Steve," Tony said, "and yet I did, that says something about us that I'm just not comfortable with." Tony shook his head. He wanted to leave but he had to make things as clear as possible. "I can't continue with a relationship like this, I can't continue knowing you now love someone else, knowing that the attention you want is not mine. I want the rest of your things out of the penthouse by morning," Tony said, getting up, thanking whichever deity was listening that he'd decided to have this conversation at the manor while it was under construction, and not somewhere else. He didn't want to associate a finished place with their breakup the way he associated the gym in his Malibu house with Pepper.

 

They spenta moment in awkward silence; what do you say to someone who just broke up with you? They knew enough about the other's work ethic to have the answers to unasked questions. Eventually Tony just left, leaving Steve alone to stare at the unfinished lawn.

 

(~o~)

 

Bruce felt a chin resting on his head and paused in his typing, looking up to meet Clint's pouty face.

 

"They broke up," the archer whined, stealing a quick kissbefore sitting on Bruce's desk. There was a place reserved for him to Bruce's right, reserved after an accident with one of Bruce's live specimens.

 

"Who did?" Bruce asked, smiling slightly.

 

"Steve and Tony! Ever since that blond girl from the CIA entered the picture everything's been kinda awkward and upside down and now they've broken up!"

 

"You don't get to blame the girl, Clint." Bruce told him at once, ignoring the way Clint huffed at him. "If anyone's to blame for their break up it is Tony and Steve, not someone else."

 

"Yeah, but - "

 

"The ones who promised to be faithful and not to stray were Steve and Tony, not that girl," Bruce pointed out, going back to his typing.

 

“Doesn’t mean I can’t blame her,” Clint said sullenly, crossing his arms - he had been rooting for the couple, what with Tony making Steve laugh and interact with the rest of them and Steve keeping Tony in line during missions.

 

“Yes, it does. You don’t blame one person for the mistakes of another,” Bruce said, pointing his stylus at Clint.

 

“But - !”

 

“'If you didn’t wantothers to hit on you and grope you, you shouldn't have worn those clothes.' You're sounding like those hateful speeches, Tweedy bird." Bruce grinned at him, grabbing Clint's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. He was always careful with his archer, knowing that Clint was probably the most vulnerable of them all, when the Hulk came out to play.

 

"I... I get it, but damn it, Bruce! I was rooting for them!"

 

"Stop treating Tony's love life like an episode of reality TV, Clint, and accept their decision. Move on, less stress in your life," Bruce said with a small smile. His lover could be such a drama queen sometimes.

 

(~o~)

 

For the next week Tony shut himself up in the workshop, venturing out only to eat and shower, but sleeping on the battered mattress in the workshop and with the radio on, tuned to that station Loki worked at.

 

He had to hand it to the guy, his voice was raspy, smooth, pleasing and utterly distracting on the radio waves and just what he needed these days. Broken hearts sucked, but Tony seemed to be on a roll with it.

 

<And now, after that delightful message from one of our sponsors, Tony grinned, Loki was a sarcastic little shit and he loved it, <we have the lines open for our listeners. Hello, this is Lukke, who's there?>

Tony paused for a moment, his eyes widening. Oh, Loki was just asking for a prank! "J.A.R.V.I.S.? Make sure I get to be the next one." It was an opportunity he just couldn't pass up. On the line a girl wasshamelessly flirting with Loki, the man answering in kind but making sure it was all jesting. Tony smirked to himself, wondering if Loki would be able to keep up the same facade with him.

 

The next call was a bit more contained, with a minimum of flirting between Loki and his male caller. Tony was a bit disappointed not to have the privilege himself; it would have been fun. The call ended on a positive note, cutting to a Bon Jovi song.

 

"Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. cut through his musings, "you have 5 seconds before you'll be on the air." Tony counted to five on his hands, trying to imagine Loki's reaction.

 

<Welcome back, and this is Lukke Walker speaking, who are you?>  came the voice in perfect Dutch. Tony couldn't help but smile at himself in anticipation.

 

<Hey Lukke, it's Edward again - you know, from a few weeks ago?> Tony asked, his Dutch rusty. He couldn't help but make a face at that. Well, he was practicing now, wasn't he?

 

<Don't you mean Edwin?> Loki, or Lukke as he preferred in this setting, asked after a significant pause; Tony wanted to coo and ask if Loki had forgotten he had given Tony his number.

<Nah, it's Edward, and I wanted to thank you for the playlist, it helped.>

 

<It was my pleasure, Edward, what can I do for you today?>

 

<Well I wanted to ask for another song but,> Tony paused, sighing and lowering a bit his voice, suggesting a more intimate setting, <see, I wondered what I could suggest for you this time that would make you pay attention to me>'

 

<Well then, Edward,> Loki's voice was also low, even more raspy than usual, Tony felt like smirking at the small victory, <you'd have to go for something intimate? Candle light and music?>

 

<No, not like that, if I may be so bold, nothing that romantic, but I suppose the things I'd like are too much to say it on air; I think a more... private setting would be perfect if you'd like to hear my ideas.>

<Ah, a man after my own heart, Mr. Edward, or should I call you Master?> Loki purred and Tony felt his cock starting to take notice. Well, it had been weeks since he last had any sort of release.

 

<I prefer Sir, Mr. Walker; if I were to have you between my sheets, that'd be all you'd be permitted to say.> He growled, a bit more heat in his voice, imagining Loki naked between his sheets, his eyes glinting green gems, pupils blown, free only to call Tony 'Sir.'

 

On the other side Loki laughed, and Tony was suddenly aching to see green eyes bright with mischief, fuck it.

 

<Okay, what would you order me to play for you then?>

 

<'S gotta be something that compliments your voice, hasn't it?> Tony asked, half rhetorically, half serious. <Well, the song I'd like to ask for...> Tony hesitated, one part of him having fun teasing Loki and himself, the other part of him wondering that the fuck he was doing. By all rights he should still be torn over Steve and the falling out and everything but -<You know what, I'm not gonna choose anything, you pick something out for me.>

 

<You know that's not how it works, right?>

 

<I know, but I'm giving you the freedom to choose for me, Lukke, make me proud?> Tony asked; despite putting it as a question, it was clear by his tone that it was an order. It reminded him how Steve detested that tone but Loki just laughed at him.

 

<I hope you'll be satisfied with this then, Mr. Verhogen,> Loki said before the line switched to private as the audience listened to Bowie's Set the World on Fire. Loki switched back to English, and Tony would bet a substantial part of his wealth that Loki was rolling his eyes. "I'm not sure if I should be annoyed with you or not; next time I'm playing Police's Every Breath You Take."

 

"I'm not playing Stalker, Ziggy."

 

"What are you playing at then, Stark?" Loki asked, eyeing the counter.

 

"Dunno, just wanted to check up on you." Tony shrugged on the other end, his half-hard dick deflating. Well, at least he had a fantasy to wank to later that night.

 

"You have my phone number, you can send me messages, you know?" Loki asked; there was a minute until the song would end. "Anyway I have to go, almost back on air!"

 

He didn't wait for Tony to answer before he hung up on him, going back on the air thirtyseconds later, continuing with his show despite the disapproving glare of his director.

 

(~o~)

 

On the other end, on the other side of the Atlantic Tony sighed; it was fun teasing Loki - no, it was fun teasing Loki with no world-invasion in sight, much more relaxed and Tony didn't fear for his life.

 

He fished his phone out of his pocket, hunting down Loki's number and sending a simple message: _'No more performance issues then? That's good.'_ He grinned to himself, wondering if that was how a well-satisfied cat felt.

 

He put his current project aside, tidied up the workshop and headed to bed after a long and relaxing shower. The wanking material had, in fact, worked.

 

(~o~)

 

In the middle of the night J.A.R.V.I.S. registered a text on his creator's phone from one Mr. Walker; it read simply, _'Don't make promises you don't intend to keep.'_

(~o~)

 

The back and forth between the two of them went on for another week, heavy on innuendo, heavy on musical quotes that sometimes they had to look for, and heavy on getting to know each other. It was similar to a game of twenty questions involving a lot more than questions.

 

Tony got to know Loki's view on things going on Earth. It was peculiar and highlighted just how _alien_ he was compared to humans. Loki didn't believe in separate governments for the same planet, though he was okay with learning over a hundred languages that existed only on the middle planet of a backwards solar system. Loki thought that it would serve humanity right to perish for their own actions and yet he had a fondness for kids Tony had never seen in anyone else, not even in Steve!

 

Loki loved math and physics, and was convinced that chemistry was nothing but the physics of the elements, and he delighted in telling Tony how utterly _wrong_ some of his concepts were. Suffice to say that Tony had the drafts of two new papers in Quantum Mechanics he wanted to test the conclusions of and publish, all based on his messages with Loki.

 

It was thrilling - the trickster was sassy, sarcastic, with incredible musical taste (in Tony's not so humble opinion); he was intelligent and knew how to explain concepts as foreign to Tony as the distant realms Loki sometimes talked about.

 

He was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something to halt this new friendship, for something to happen to tell him he was utterly wrong. He really hoped that when Thor came back he would have something negative to say about the whole deal,ask Tony to stop or something similar, but he doubted it.

 

(~o~)

 

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Thunderer roamed the Netherlands, trying to spot Loki in a corner or even on the bus. He had spent two days with Jane, enough to get information about the approximate area where Loki was residing.

 

As much as he hated leaving Jane, his former brother really was more important; family - even if they had disowned you - was more important than the whims of the heart.

 

It was weird to be dressed in Midgardian clothes; he had always made a point to use his Aesir clothing, as was fitting of Asgard's ambassador, to show his difference from humans, despite their bipedal similarity. He was wearing jeans, boots (supposed to be heavy, but you never knew with humans), a dark shirt and a leather jacket, his hair bound in a ponytail, like Loki favored sometimes, and dark sunglasses and headphones.

 

He had been roaming the Netherlands for the past three days, his smartphone tuned to the station Loki worked for, set by Natasha on Thor's request. He had heard the exchange between Loki and Tony and had been more amused than exasperated; his brother - and he would continue to call him that in his heart despite Loki's wishes - complimented Stark in a way Rogers never quite did, in the Thunderer's humble opinion.

 

It was purely by chance that he saw Loki, exiting the library and being followed by some kids, as had always happened in Asgard. Thor followed them at a distance, knowing his presence would not be welcomed, knowing he would be shunned and berated for going against strict orders.

 

He saw how his brother smiled at the little ones; he was probably telling them a story either of Midgard or of some other realm, by their reaction. He followed Loki as the children left him for their parents, entering the same café, but knowing he could not sit with Loki until he had acknowledged Thor's presence.

 

He watched with a heavy heart as Loki stared directly at him, but refused his presence. Thor nodded in acceptance, knowing he could not argue Loki's decision, not this time.

 

(~o~)

 

Loki watched with feigned indifference as Thor left the cafe. It was a different place than the one he had shown Stark. He wanted Thor's presence nowhere near the place he actually had some treasured memories.

 

He ground his teeth, watching the god of thunder shuffle out of the place. Of course, not five minutes later a light rain started to pour on the city, the same kind Loki remembered from when he was a boy; it usually happened when Thor wanted to cry or express sadness, but couldn't.

 

Loki sneered in disgust, finishing his drink and sending a message to Tony.

 

(~o~)

 

Tony opened his phone when it beeped. He was in a briefing with Fury, the Avengers and some heads of security around the world - there had been attacks on the population all over the world, with the same heat signature that happened around Extremis incidents, but on a larger scale, with up to five Extremis soldiers for every ten innocents.

 

Someone had gotten ahold of Extremis and Tony didn't like it, not one bit.

 

"Well, we found Thor," Tony said, snorting, before handing his phone to Fury. "How about we bring him on board too?"

 

"Who?" Clint asked, eyes narrowed at Tony.

 

"Loki, who else?" Tony said flippantly, rolling his eyes. "We need thinkers who may get to the bottom of this. This is a tough one, and just Bruce and I are not enough."

 

"Why not?" Steve asked. It was the first time they'd seen each other since the breakup and Steve was in full leader mode, to Tony's relief.

 

"Because we tend to think within the constraints we were taught here on Earth. We have no idea who's behind this, what's their goal, what they're prepared to do or how they even got a copy of Extremis," Tony complained. Listing the facts was like listing failures to him.

 

"Loki, from what Tony told me, has other types of constraints." Mainly that Loki didn't recognize Bruce's life work as real, but they wouldn't tell the team that. "He might help with sources, with other ideas."

 

"Can't you do it over the phone, as Tony's clearly been doing?" Clint interrupted, sending a minor glare to Bruce. He was miffed that Bruce hadn't thought it important to tell him Tony was bloody _talking_ to Loki. Of course Bruce would come up with a reason - his scientist always did - but right now that didn't matter.

 

"Loki's five hours away from us," Natasha interrupted. "It would be easier to have him here, where we can talk to him face to face, to have him watch what we have to do, than to have him on the other side of the world receiving outdated information, regardless if that's outdated by a week or by a five-second notice, you know that, Clint." She made a move with her hand, a clockwise circle over hear heart with her right hand. Some things had to be said, but others had to be said in a language few in the room could speak.

 

"Fine, just keep the nutter away from me." The archer huffed, leaning back on his chair.

 

They continued with the meeting, deciding to wait for Thor to come back before they made any sort of decision about bringing Loki to them.

 

On the side, Tony continued to message the Trickster, relating the parts that were important to him - such as his eventual trip to the States, Loki vehemently denying him, saying he was tired of rainy days and that's what would happen if he were to move to NYC - the soft smile on his face unmistakable to everyone present.

Steve looked on with a heavy heart; watching his former lover take an interest in someone else was hard, but he knew he had asked for it. Sharon had given him a dressing down for how he had treated his relationship with Tony and said she wouldn't stand for it. Bruce watched with bemusement, knowing his own lover was thinking of ways to kill Loki.

 

Natasha was pleased, even if she did feel sorry for Clint. Tony had been more active and in a generally good mood since he and the Trickster had talked - that had been true for the past few weeks as well - so the presence of another friend could only improve his mood and for that Natasha was glad.

 

Fury just wondered what he would have to bribe Loki with to get him to come to the US.

 

(~o~)

 

"If he agrees to it, it would be wonderful," Thor said when he learned the plan, not a second of hesitation behind it.

 

"Can you tell us what happened between you and Loki?" Bruce asked, a hand on his archer's knee, gently squeezing.

 

"Nothing happened. He saw me yet he refused to acknowledge my presence, therefore I had to leave," Thor explained, pained.

 

"That doesn't make much sense, Thunderstruck. Could you elaborate?" Tony asked, sitting on the armchair nearest Thor's and nearest the door, planning to leave as soon as he could.

 

"I forget you mortals don't have the concept of disowning."

 

"Uhn, we kinda do?" Tony said, scratching the back of his neck. "Some lame parents have the bad habit of disowning their kids due to their sexuality." He shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. Cultural differences could be fun, but this was not one of them.

 

Thor shook his head, raising a hand to stall further arguments. "That's a minor disowning; it hurts, but it can be undone with a few words and forgiveness. The disowning I mean is to remove yourself from the family as much as you can, to have their feelings for you muted, to have the signs of family erased from your body and your core. Loki did it shortly after his sentence had begun on Midgard. When I think of Loki I can no longer think of him as a brother, though I know in my heart we used to be; I can no longer address him unless he talks to me first, I cannot impose my presence on him the way I used to when we were brothers." Thor swallowed, feeling a hand squeeze his shoulder; he was still wearing his jacket, so he could easily feel the human's hand. "My father can no longer consider Loki his son, the feelings he had for Loki; all of the feelings he had for Loki were muted. My mother does not consider Loki her son; everything he had ever meant to her is lost."

 

"That's horrible," Steve whispered to himself, trying to imagine how someone could do that. He knew, however, that some people wouldn't think twice about doing the same thing.

 

"Do you know why he did it? Do you know if it can be undone?" Tony asked, his own heart torn in two. He loved Thor as a friend, and couldn't imagine who would want to be away from him, but on the other hand he now knew Loki's temper and his capacity for misunderstandings and Loki's arrogance in thinking he was always right.

 

"He never told us why and no, it cannot be undone." Thor got up, needing time to be by himself after such a draining conversation.

 

Tony gave him a moment before running after Thor, the inventor knowing on instinct not to approach Loki's disowning.

 

He found Thor on his own terrace, the strong wind whipping against him, while Thor just stared down.

 

"Did he tell you why he disowned us, Anthony?" Thor asked as soon as he entered, his face hidden from view, though Tony would be the last person to ask for Thor to look at him, sometimes it was easy to pretend one wasn't crying if no one was pointing it out.

 

"He didn't. I didn't even know about it until you said so," He shrugged, sitting on Thor's bed - a massive thing with real furs from animals he had never even heard of. "I'm really bad at this comfort thing Thor, I wouldn't even know where to start, so I won't."

 

Truth was, Loki might regret what he had done and he might not. The only one privy to it was Loki himself and he didn't seem to be in a hurry to say anything on the matter.

 

"You're really similar to him," Thor said, getting his emotions under control and discreetly whipping his eyes, Tony pretended not to see. "I think under different circumstances you'd be good friends. For longer than you are now, I mean."

 

Tony's eyes widened, waiting for a certain hammer to strike him, for his will to go in effect. When nothing happened after a moment Tony opened his eyes, he hadn't even realized he had closed them, and looked at Thor again, "huh, and you're not creeped out that we might be friends? I mean, with the whole situation between you two?"

 

"Nay, Loki needs friends, needs someone to rely on, if that's you, then you have my thanks." Thor said, looking at his hands.

 

They spent a moment in silence, each one musing about his particular situation when it came to Loki. It was a moment of respite before the tower started to blaze with sounds and sirens, Fury's electronic voice commanding the Avengers from the living room as Thor and Tony ran.

 

"There's a situation in Jersey, a stable Extremis subject wracking havoc and heading for New York, he just sent a bank up in flames, do all you can to stop him!"

 

"Try and get Loki to see what's going on," Tony shouted, heading for his workshop to get one of his suits, one that could withstand extremis' temperatures.

 

"I'll see if he's awake! Get to Jersey now!"

 

(~o~)

 

It was the buzz that woke him up nearly two hours before he had to actually get up, he rubbed his eyes with his fingers, reaching blindly for his phone, "this better be good director."

 

"Do you remember how to turn on Satellite viewing? There's a situation happening live that we need you to look at." Fury said at once, business like.

 

"Yes, give me one moment." Loki put his phone down, looking around for his computer and hitting a series of command as soon as the machine started, it wasn't the Windows' main screen he wanted this time.

 

"What am I looking?" He yawned, looking at the screen, the left side showing live broadcast from the world news. He selected the few focused on the US, zooming in until he could see the delayed picture.

 

There was a car speeding on the road, infrared vision on the satellite showed a body with increased heat inside, the marker almost white.

 

"That is incredibly similar to the Extremis report I've read." Loki said calmly, eyes focused on the car, he watched as the individuals parked the van clumsily in front of a bank, riffles shattering the windows before the main individual started to breathe white-hot fire towards everyone.

 

"How much is the delay for these images?" Loki asked, his stomach churning as he saw people running even as they were burnt alive.

 

"At least a minute, the Avengers have engaged the van." Fury explained, on the other side of the Atlantic looking at the live feed of Iron Man trying to shoot the man down. This was no time for mercy.

 

"I'm not sure what you want me to do, Fury, there's not much I can say that you won't already see over there."

 

"Just observe, tell us anything you might think useful."

 

"Okay," Loki shrugged, putting Fury on the speaker and starting up his coffee maker. "Who's engaged the criminals so far?"

 

"Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk in direct combat, Captain America, Hawkeye and the Widow are on ranged attacks, Widow on the jet and Hawkeye shooting projectiles while Captain tries to evacuate the area."

 

"Good, how's Thor and Hulk doing so far?"

 

"The target's too fast to be hit, though Stark seems to have some success with his targeting system."

 

"Not for long he won't." Loki mused, staring at the images; even delayed he could see how the man gained confidence, tried new attacks, eventually wrapping one red-hot hand around Thor's forearm. He could see his former brother scream in pain as he tugged his body parts free of the human.

 

"Tell Thor and the Hulk to try and help from afar, the only one who might have some success is Iron Man and only with his targeting system, though it won't work for long. That man's testing his boundaries, seeing how far he can go and he's not finished with this sudden evolution." He mused, cataloging species and how they moved. He had seen these before, though only once.

 

"Talk to me Loki."

 

"He's more similar to the Kurse. He's extremely strong and can go through most materials, you'd have to either electrocute him with a charge that's twice that of lightning or you'd have to blow him up. The area's too small to summon any sort of lightning, however, you'll have to bait the man out." He snorted as the man used his own former companions as shields against Iron Man's blasts.

 

"Okay, Iron Man has maybe another three minutes before the man overcomes his targeting system and blows everyone up. Tell Stark to taunt him, and lead him to an open area, one there the Hulk and the other three can keep him occupied for a moment while Thor summons enough energy to electrocute the guy.

 

"We need information, Loki, is there any way to stun him?"

 

"There is, but as soon as he wakes up again he'll be on a rampage, he's canon folder, Fury, you know this and so do I. He wakes up and you'll go through everything again. You don't have anything strong enough to hold him down, not yet."

 

"Yet?"

 

"I'm assuming you want me nearer in case that one's bosses show up?" Loki asked, a smirk across his lips.

 

"How soon can you get here?" Fury asked, gritting his teeth, sometimes Loki annoyed him just by being who he was.

 

"As soon as I hand in my vacation, I'm due for it anyway."

 

"See you soon then."

 

(~o~)

 

"Well?" Fury asked the assembled group behind him. All of them battered and an assortment of bruises. The fight had lasted all of thirty minutes until the group had realized they would have to use lethal force against the man. By then Iron Man's targeting system had been useless and the only ones holding a chance against the flaming individual had been the Hulk and Thor, it had taken them ten minutes to draw the man away and shoot him down.

 

"I find it disturbing that Loki could tell all that with a five-minute conversation." Steve said, crossing his arms.

 

"Loki is a master strategist," Thor said, holding his burnt arm, even with the Æsir healing it would take a while for him to go back to 100%, though he was nowhere near as bad as Doctor Banner, who had his face and a good 20% of his body burnt, the only reason he survived had been the Hulk. "The only reason he loses is because he's impatient."

 

Tony smirked to himself, he had gotten the same impression from the Trickster, loses because lacks the necessary patience and then pouts because he didn't get what he wanted. Yeah, so Tony knew it from experience, as a narcissist it was endearing to see the same thing on someone he liked.

 

"So," Tony said, crossing his arms, one of his wrists wrapped in gauze, the Iron Man suit unable to handle the heat. "Who's going to tell Clint?"


	3. Chapter 3

**TITLE:** Adamanteus

**AUTHOR** : Wynter Ravenheart

**ARTIST** : [dumb-ways-to-live](http://dumb-ways-to-live.tumblr.com/)

**PAIRING** : A little bit of Steve/Tony and a lot of Loki/Tony

**WARNING** : Liberal use of Superhusbands [Steve/Tony] as a stepping stone for Frostiron, Hurt/Comfort

**SUMMARY** : Adamanteus: of hard steel, iron, not to be broken. After his exile from Asgard - temporary as it may be - the last place Loki expected to find any of the Avengers is Amsterdam, granted the last thing Tony wanted after his unexpected break up with Steve was to find out that Loki was still alive and kicking, and hosting a radio show. It's not surprising they would have similar tastes, neither that they would be intimately aware of each other’s issues. Some people have got to find out that some bonds you just can’t break.

**A/N** : Some people named inside are actually real. No harm or disrespect is meant to them, the only intent is to show this as a version of our world.

 

SUPER thanks to the following people: Qwanderer for beta-ing the first 2 parts [I’m horrible, horrible, no good writer and I didn’t send the rest to her!] Hedwig-dordt for checking out my failed Dutch, I owe you something big! I’ve no idea what, but I do! Songofcatharsis for letting me pick up her brain for songs!

 

Speaking of which, if you want to check out the playlist for this fic, you can check out my Spotify: [Adamanteus](http://open.spotify.com/user/redraven85/playlist/0fNZZIh5Hra8szYHJdKnZg)

 

**Part III - Set the world on fire!**

Loki arrived on the JFK airport two days after his conversation with Fury, two bags to his name and a month's salary on his pocket. He just thanked the Norns he actually got his salary in euros instead of US Dollars, or he'd be screwed. And that the station guys were so fucking understanding! Well to a degree, he couldn't just up and take a vacation, so distant live updates it would be! Thankfully he would be staying at SHIELD, so that would be easy to do.

 

He grabbed his bags and headed to the exit where he met a woman he had only heard of previously, she was tall, with five-inch Louboutins, strawberry blond hair and blue eyes, dressed sharply and with an air of importance, to keep others away. She looked at him from top to bottom, his dark jeans, unlaced converse, a The Cure shirt with Robert Smith circa 1988, a leather jacket, dark glasses, an old leather messenger bag and a dark heavy industrial piercing on his right ear. SHIELD and STRIKE’s GPS.

 

"You're Loki." Pepper Potts said, frowning.

 

"You have me at a disadvantage." Loki said, offering his hand, "you know my name and I've yet to hear yours." He gave her a sharp smile, lying through his teeth. The same shark smile he had given Anthony.

 

"I'm Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries." She said, a hasty handshake later and she was steeling herself though her legs trembled when faced with the man. "You're the one that harmed Phil." She stated her voice frosty.

 

"Killed, Ms. Potts," he corrected gently, "the word you're looking for is kill, if he is alive today it is due to either Kree or Skrull technology that may or may not have altered his DNA to that of something else. But rest assured the original Phil Coulson is dead."

 

Pepper turned away from him in disgust, walking at a brisk pace, something Loki easily managed to keep up with. Loki ignored it, it was only the truth after all. Humans had no knowledge of alien tech, at least not enough to try and heal one of their own after their death, the new 'Phil Coulson' could be a Skrull for all that he cared.

 

"I don't know why Tony asked me to pick you up." Pepper said, half a question in her acid tone, but Loki decided to ignore it, she wasn't SHIELD and certainly was not above him in any way, he owed her no real explanations, though answers would only be good manners.

 

"Good press, most likely. Two minds working together on a project, or whatever it is he has advertised recently." Loki half-answered anyway, shrugging. He got his phone from his pocket, scrolling through news and some messages from people he actually knew, besides Stark that is.

 

They continued to walk in silence to the car, Loki occasionally looking around, impassive even if curious, he hadn't had much time for sight-seeing the last time he had been in New York. Pepper continued to try and ignore his presence, recalling how she had cried over Phil, how it had hurt to have Phil suddenly come back to life, she hadn't been prepared for that, at all. There was a reason she left all he superhero stuff to Tony, even after the whole Extremis incident.

 

"That him?" Happy asked as soon as he saw Pepper and Loki approaching.

 

"Yes, this is him." Pepper said through gritted teeth, her voice tight in anger and forced politeness. "Happy this is Loki, Loki, Happy."

 

They shook hands, Loki with a pleasant smile on his face, Happy with narrowed eyes. The trip continued on the same vein, with Pepper and Happy tense, Loki busy on his phone, tapping and scrolling on the tiny screen.

 

Even though she was curious, Pepper decided not to ask, it was none of her business and the alien would probably be out of their hair soon enough, she hoped.

 

It was as they approached Stark Tower, that Loki put his phone away, turning to Happy with a slight frown, "excuse me, aren't we supposed to go to SHIELD's current HQ?"

 

Happy shook his head, frowning himself. "Boss asked us to deliver you here, don't ask me why, I don't know."

 

Loki nodded, frowning. What the hell was Stark up to?

 

(~o~)

 

"Sir, Miss Potts and Mister Happy have arrived, accompanying Mr. Walker." J.A.R.V.I.S. said lowering Tony's music.

 

"Walker?" Tony asked, blinking at a nearby camera.

 

"Mr. Loki," J.A.R.V.I.S. reiterated a panel close by showing the three of them on the elevator. It was an interesting dynamic, with Happy and Pepper standing in front of Loki, their bodies angled sideways and away from him, in a way that suggested more tension than was probably necessary.

 

Tony decided to meet them in the hallway, best to get the three of them away from each other.

 

With safety goggles still on and a rag on his hand to clean it up, he went up only to meet Bruce on the way, probably with the same idea.

 

"Meeting our newest team member?" Bruce said with a small smile on his lips.

 

"Sort of, yeah, Pepper and Happy are bringing him up and I thought it better to get them all away from each other, you?"

 

"Clint wanted to come and meet him. I didn't think that'd be such a good idea." Bruce shrugged, even as the steel doors opened to let the three people in.

 

Tony smiled slightly at Pepper and Happy, it had taken a while after their break up for things to go back to a semblance of normality between them, and even so things just weren't as they were before. There was no more sexual tension though, which Tony counted as a bonus.

 

"Loki, right? I don't think we've been properly introduced." Bruce started, moving forward and offering his hand. If he was at all nervous he didn't show.

 

"Doctor Banner," Loki replied in kind, accepting the handshake before turning to Tony with a slight smile "Anthony, what have you got for me?"

 

"A The Smiths reference and some people who explode on sight. Which you wanna tackle first?" Tony asked, a big grin spreading on his face as he opened his arms, Loki gladly stepped forward, giving his friend a tight hug, or as tight as he could without being compared to a boa constrictor and damaging the inventor's back.

 

"I don't quite think you have a diary, outside your workshop that is," Loki said with a smile, stepping back a little. "Even if you did I don't think you'd keep it in written form on your room for me to snoop around."

 

"First of all, those are not diaries, those are scientific entries which I’m using to write that Paper I told you about! Second, that was so not the reference I had in mind." Tony said, ignoring the gob smacked people around him for the moment. He had more important things to focus on, Loki was more important.

 

"I won't die by a double decker bus, you know? Most likely the bus will be dented." Loki shrugged, crossing his arms.

 

"Not even if I bludgeoned you?"

 

Loki laughed, stepping aside to look at the penthouse, he really didn't have the time to look around the last time he had been there. It was a nice room. "I think you're freaking your friends out, stop it."

 

"Ah fine," Tony smirked at the god, pointing at the white couch and shooing Loki, if the god had any reservation about stepping inside and looking around, he showed none.

 

The reaction was immediate, as Pepper rounded on him, with Happy and Bruce around as they blocked Tony's view.

 

"Tony," Pepper started, "what's going on?"

 

"There's been an attack with an advanced form of Extremis, by a person or people or a terrorist nuclear cell we had no knowledge of, so we decided to call in Loki to help us deal with it."

 

"That's not what I mean and you know it, since when do you know each other? Since when have you talked?" Pepper said, on the verge of hysteria, Tony was still one of her closest friends, to have him talk to Loki was...

 

"I've been talking to him for close to two months now, Pepper." Tony said, rolling his eyes. "We've kinda became friends."

 

"Kinda?" Pepper half-whispered, half-hissed, glancing at the deity from the corner of her eyes. He was just sprawled on the couch, typing on his phone. Pepper was mildly annoyed to see it wasn't a Stark brand, until she reminded herself that she didn't actually want contact with the man who had mortally wounded Phil. The stark memory of Loki gently chiding her saying he had actually killed Coulson would probably give her nightmares.

 

"Yeah, it happens when you start talking to a person, you know? He's brilliant, and he's got my kinda humor." Tony grinned shamelessly at her before turning to Bruce, "he gets differentials and geometric analytics, Bruce! He solves them mentally! He was arguing with me over the whole Chaos Theory, saying the guys after it were going in the wrong directions! Hell I have four Papers on Quantum Mechanics and one in Math that I'm seriously gonna have to list him as a co-author, you know how big that is?"

 

Bruce did. They had tried it, once, to have a co-authored paper, but their brains were literally wired in opposite ways. It had gone up in flames very quickly, hilariously quickly with Bruce hulking out rather unexpectedly and Tony having to physically restrain him with the Hulk Buster.

 

At least they had learnt two things: that Tony could restrain a mildly inconvenienced Hulk with the Hulk Buster and that it was generally easier to just call Clint and have him try and calm down Bruce. Tony still though it was sweet to have the Hulk attempting sign language.

 

"Are you sure about this?" Bruce asked, just to be on the safe side, but he knew Tony had already made up his mind.

 

"He calls me names, Bruce. Last time he called me an idiot, that was the time we found Thor, and afterwards he called me stupid." Tony said with the biggest grin he could muster, Bruce and Pepper knew what he meant though, when in a battle of intellects - and when Tony was involved it was a battle - no one, virtually no one called him stupid, or any other names, part in fear of his intellect and part in fear he'd call them on their bullshit, there were few things worse than the burn Tony Stark could give someone else in the scientific community, in specific, someone who started insulting Tony himself.

 

The fact Loki could call Tony names in such a setting and still be intact, so to speak, to have the inventor grinning at them, meant they stood at least on equal footing, and that was huge.

 

"Are you done grilling me? Can I go back to my guest?" Tony asked, crossing his arms and coming as close as he had ever been to pouting. He didn't wait for their answer, turning on his heel and fairly stalking towards Loki.

 

They turned and watched as the deity shoved him off, snapping something that's sounded suspiciously like fond exasperation "Wat is er met jou aan de hand?"

"Gewoon blij dat je er bent. Kom, ik wil je het lab laten zien!" Tony said with a smile, Loki could see his eyes light up, and he couldn't help but be flattered.

"Wacht, blijf ik hier slapen? Want dan wil ik mijn spullen graag in een kamer neerzetten."Loki asked, pointing at his stuff near the door. He didn't expect to remain long, all things considered.

"Ik heb je liever in mijn kamer, dan kunnen we de hele nacht over wiskunde praten."Loki just frowned at him, somehow sharing a room with him didn't seem such a good idea, even though yes he'd like to discuss some subjects with Tony, he still had a few nomenclatures to catch up on, and he much preferred Tony teaching then someone else. But even so -

"Nee joh, gek, breng me naar mijn kamer."Tony just smiled sheepishly at him, motioning for the god to follow him, leaving three dumbstruck friends.

 

"What the hell just happened?"

 

"I didn't know Tony actually knew Dutch." Bruce said, staring after his friend and suddenly wondering what he was going to tell Clint.

 

"I didn't know Tony actually practiced his Dutch." Pepper said, crossing her arms, a defensive gesture she had learnt with Tony himself.

 

(~o~)

 

<Seriously?>  Clint signed, his finger lingering on his chin as he stared at Bruce astonished, he expected many things from the whole Loki/Tony deal, close friendship was not one of them. He asked, frowning. <Does Steve know?>

 

Bruce frowned back, this time not indulging his boyfriend in his silliness, he had seen nothing odd going on with the two men, he wasn't going to ruin something that Tony liked just because his boyfriend was disapproving of the other party. "I assume so," he said out loud, crossing his arms. "He seems a bit indifferent to it, to be honest."

 

"Yeah, well, I think he should care," Clint replied also out loud, since was Bruce was being difficult, "don't quote me on this, not yet, but I think Tony'll go back to his authority defying ways."

 

"Are we talking about the same Tony?" Bruce asked with an amused chuckle, "honey, Tony didn't stop defying authority just because he was dating Steve, they got into heated arguments regardless of relationship status, some of which were nastier because of it even."

 

"I know, it's just a hunch, but I think he's going back to the beginning, y'know?"

 

"Yeah, but I won't quote you on that." Bruce grinned, leaning in to kiss his boyfriend's lips.

 

(~o~)

 

It was strangely thrilling living with Tony, his friend had a routine going on: getting up at 7am, working from 8am to 8pm or later and only coming up for air when he was hungry, and even then he was usually busy with J.A.R.V.I.S., asking for updates on other projects.

 

Loki had been a somewhat permanent fixture on the lab and on Tony’s Study – well former study now - ever since the second day Loki had been there and had pointed out a flaw on the design, and had proceeded to correct it, while complaining about outdated physics theories.

 

Oh yes, Tony was smitten with Loki's brain if not with the Trickster himself. One day he would get Bruce and Loki talking about impossible theories.

 

On the days that Loki wasn't a fixture on Tony's lab, he was at SHIELD headquarters, either trying to track down the terrorists or doing some other type of research. Granted it had been a week, so no concrete results were expected by anyone not until another attack happened, that is. It was far from the tower this time, in Long Island, the east border along the Atlantic. What were they doing there? No one had any idea.

 

Iron Man and Thor were the first to arrive, and it was to a gruesome scene.

 

See people always think that crime or terrorist scenes were bad, mostly because they've watched it on TV a number of times, in the form of police shows and sitcoms and series. None of it can compare to the real thing through.

 

Tony wished it would be the same as TV, but he had lost count of how many corpses he had encountered during his stint as an Avenger. It was a trail of blood and gore and Tony couldn't see how anyone could willingly do that. That he had contributed to that in his past still left a bitter taste in his mouth.

 

There were charred bodies on the man's trail. And Tony was sure that, if not for the ventilation system he'd throw up because of the smell, as it was even Thor looked to be on the verge of being sick.

 

He scanned with infrared, reading the horizon in shades of orange, red, yellow, green and purple, the fucker had to be here, psychopaths usually never left their victims alone, especially when they could be found and they could get recognition. Tony had had to study the bastards.

 

"Where are you?" Tony whispered, knowing the com would pick it up.

 

_"Iron Man, the Quinjet will be there in T-2, you've got movement to your right."_ Loki whispered in his ear, and Tony grinned, fondly, much more fondly than the situation asked for.

 

"Good of you to join us, Ziggy Stardust." He teased before a jet of red hot flames was shot in his direction, J.A.R.V.I.S. picking up movement to his 6-o'clock.

 

They both jumped apart as another jet of white hot flames was aimed at them.

 

(~o~)

 

"They're targeting Iron Man," Loki muttered, knowing Fury and Hill would pick up, he could see the movements, even though it was incredibly blurry, too much speed for the cameras to pick up.

 

"Thor," Loki said, keeping his voice steady as another jet of flames was thrown at them, Loki could see the shifts in stances, how the man stopped for a second and aimed. "They're targeting Iron Man, try and run interference, you can probably see it better than his sensors."

 

_"There's too much smoke and flames, to see anything, but I shall try."_ Thor's voice was still loud, tampered only by the situation, he raised he hammer high, calling for rain. It would help the visibility a bit, however not with locating the target.

 

"Thor, call a lightning storm." Loki said, eyes on the screen, he knew the suit could take it, Thor could too as master of the storm, the person? Maybe. Loki hoped not.

 

As part of the smoke settled, they could see the violence before them, black lumps littering the street, overturned cars opened as if they were sardine cans, the bank before them with its doors opened, the walls charred black - the structure no doubt compromised.

 

"Thor, anything?" Loki asked as he went through the live cameras, from surveillance to the odd smartphone and the real live commercial cameras.

 

(~o~)

 

There was movement on his left, but as soon as Tony turned the being had moved elsewhere, too fast for J.A.R.V.I.S. to see, too fast to be anything other than a mutant or mutated person. They had had no news about aliens, and they did have the world under surveillance.

 

"I though Pietro was with Wanda in Romania?"

 

_"He is,"_ Loki said in his ear, the Trickster's voice was unshaken, and it was a relief to hear it, if Tony was honest with himself. _"This is something else, someone else. You haven't pissed off anyone lately, have you?"_

"Not that I remember," Tony said, J.A.R.V.I.S. warning him almost too late of the steam of flames on his way. "And even if I did, no one this powerful!" Tony cursed as he got out of the way, flying in the direction the flames had come from and taking a sharp turn left. The blur had stilled long enough for J.A.R.V.I.S. to get a blurry shot of it.

 

He heard Loki curse on the comm, and hear Thor shouting, holding on to someone and yes, Tony did recognize those crisscrossing red patterns on their skin: Extremis.

 

He got close enough to hear the guy screaming, a litany of villainous spill he couldn't care less for. He tackled the guy from Thor, registering the Thunderer with a multitude of second and third degree burns again. He could feel fury in his veins as he looked at the other man. It was a boy, really, barely out of teenage hood as he retold his tale.

 

Cult-like life, white supremacist racism all around him, loss of parents due to police intervention-

 

He shot the guy.

 

_"You idiot,"_ Loki hissed at him, even as the boy backhanded him, the Iron Man suit flying on a direct path to a crumbling wall as the boy got away. _"Can you get up? We've got visual of the area, he's not there anymore."_

"What?" Tony asked, trying to get up, the ominous noises around him telling him the building was about to collapse.

 

_"He escaped, we're not getting his heat signal anymore, Iron Man. We're trying to track him down, he’s not Extremis, not really. Thor, get him out of the building, it's going to collapse soon enough."_

"Who was he Loki?" Thor asked, and, when Tony looked he really really wished he hadn't. There was skin peeling out of Thor's face, his arm blotched an angry red, patches of skin charred black.

 

"Thor-!"

 

_"We've faced worse, Iron Man, we'll deal with Thor when you two get back on the base. For now there's nothing left but cleanup. We'll be expecting you in two hours, I've already dispatched the cleaning crew."_ Loki hanged up, and Tony just couldn't shake the feeling he might have done something stupid, Loki sounded pissed.

(~o~)

 

It was a sullen duo that showed up at HQ, and a furious Loki who greeted them. Tony wanted to ask what was wrong, to ask what had he done that had fucked up everything, though he kept his mouth shut. If Loki wanted to talk, to vent, he would, probably, though part of him knew Loki wouldn’t, not really, just as Tony wouldn’t talk if the situation was in reverse.

 

"It's not Extremis." It was the first thing the Trickster said, they were all sitting at the meeting table, Loki across from Fury with a laptop, almost dividing the table in two groups. Natasha, Thor and Tony to one side, Clint, Bruce and Steve on the other, along with a grim faced Coulson and Maria. Loki was scowling even as Fury was contemplating the new information.

 

"Are you sure of this? It looked an awful lot like Extremis to me." Steve asked, if he thought working with Loki was weird, then he kept it to himself.

 

"The base is the same, Captain Rogers," Loki begun, turning the laptop to himself and, after typing a few commands, back to the group. It was the footage of something, but it wasn't their most recent battle. "This is a presentation from a few attacks, some of them happened on earth, most of them did not."

 

They watched in silence, the battles with Tony and the Extremis subjects in Tennessee, then the battle with Killian. Then the most recent battle with Thor, Loki and two beings Tony could not even begin to guess the species of. They were black and blue, from top to bottom, eyes as dark as coal, from what Tony could see, and, the one who was apparently their leader, had a face that was half-white, not just his face, but his hair, his skin, his eyes. Everything.

 

"That's Malekith the Accursed, a dark elf," Loki begun, zooming in on the image, the being to the elf's right was taller than Thor, even bulkier with horns which bent forward, his skin dark with glowing ridges. "That's the Kurse, with a K, It used to be a dark elf, until it was infected, so to speak, with the Kurse. It's somewhat similar to Extremis, much more stable, the so called powers are the same, however it has a deadline."

 

"What is that planet?" Bruce asked, leaning forward to see more clearly, it seemed as if a storm was going through the screen. It was curiosity, Tony could recognize it as such, if they let it, Bruce would take the briefing in a whole different direction, and Tony could see why, it was interesting, so much more interesting than the attacks on earth.

 

"That's the realm of Svartemheimr," Loki replied, "or as you'd more easily recognize, the Planetary System of Svartemheimr, their sun is now a red dwarf and it has three planets, the one Thor and I were battling in is the main planet, no one remembers its name anymore." He shrugged, unconcerned.

 

"Did the blast from the star's transformation cause the planet's ruin?" Bruce continued, looking between the former brothers. Thor continued in silence, holding a compression cloth to his face, and Loki just arched an eyebrow, with no more explanation than a simple 'Bor did it.'

 

"Moving on," he continued with an eye roll, Tony just rolled his eyes back at him, even as he tried to hide a grin, he was so fucked, and not even in the fun way. "The Kurse have a deadline, it burns the body's mass, even as it expands it beyond its limits, when that original mass is used, and they start to disintegrate, somewhat similar to a neutron star."

 

"Similar to what?" Steve asked, frowning.

 

"A black hole, sort of," Tony said, addressing the blonde for the first time, it didn't really hurt anymore, not the way it used to, one couldn’t just forget Steve Roger, that’s not how it happened. But Tony had found a much more interesting person to fixate on. "So what you're saying is that when the mass runs out the body is turns into a mini black hole? What does that have to do with anything?"

 

"He takes a long time to get to his point, shell head, he usually does have a point," Clint interrupted, with an annoyed sigh. He knew Loki well enough, from the time of NYC's battle, to know he would get to his point eventually. That knowledge did nothing to please him.

 

"Quite so, Agent Barton," Loki sighed again, rubbing his temples. He looked at Tony, trying to find the strength to go on, he only found amusement and a hint of pity, fucker. "What we're seeing here is the middle term between Extremis and the Kurse, something only a talented sorcerer could do."

 

He turned the computer, typed another command and turned it back to them, on the screen the picture of a beautiful woman, blond with light green eyes and a mischievous smile.

 

"Amora," he said, "sorceress, with an uncanny affinity for cursed items, love spells and summoning, has an obsession with Thor on her off days, and we've yet to figure out just why she's here on earth to start with, if it's Thor, another threat to earth or something else entirely. By the pattern in the attacks we know what she's after, just not what's going to happen once she gets it."

 

"Isn't that sort of your job though? To know what's going on? Isn't that why you're here?" Bruce asked, frowning, Tony personally thought he was still miffed at being denied new knowledge. But Loki took it in stride.

 

"In as much as it is your job to break Harlem every other Thursday." Loki replied, his fingers typing commands in a furious pace. "My punishment, or as you know it, my job, is to advance the human race in a geometric progression. Incidentally this puts me in touch with governmental entities such as SHIELD and STRIKE, who not so occasionally ask for my help in some matters. Since I don't have my usual resources, to help in the way I'm used to, I have to make do with the hand I'm dealt, so to speak." He looked up at Barton and Romanoff, nodding at them. "That's you two. We've got info on a cargo that Amora's interested in, and another location that she'll visit."

 

"The first one," Fury said, taking over and pointing at a holographic map, "is a cargo of Groove Spheres that's bound to arrive in the US tomorrow for further study," the resident scientists shared a disbelieving look, but Fury held up a hand to stall any conversation, "the second is the Disputa of the Eucharist," the map zoomed in Italy, a high region on top of what appeared to be a mountain, somewhat remote when compared to NYC, "Widow I want you to observe, don't make contact with her. Take Thor with you."

 

"Actually," Loki interrupted, "there's a high chance she'll sense you, even if you're hidden. Come talk to me before you leave, I might have special gear for you."

 

"Right, Hawkeye, I want you to intercept the cargo. Get it safely to the laboratories, that's your mission."

 

"Extraction?" Clint asked, his bad mood forgotten.

 

"Yes, for both of you. Team you're dismissed, Hawkeye, Widow, stay behind so we can debrief you."

 

(~o~)

 

Tony was lingering. He knew he was lingering, and he could feel the stares from Bruce and Steve, but he had decided to ignore it until one of them said something.

 

Yes he was waiting for Loki, he had decided to, first because the Trickster might need a ride back to the tower, and Tony wouldn't say no to spending more time with him, and second because he needed to know why Loki had been so pissed off with him.

 

Bruce was waiting for Clint, that much they all knew, but the way he kept muttering about Groove Spheres told Tony where his mind was, and he couldn't help but grin, beyond amused. It was a hoax everyone in the scientific community knew about, and the fact that Amora might be falling for it was jarring.

 

"Tony? Waiting for someone?" Steve.

 

"Loki actually." He shrugged, it was still odd talking to Steve, after their break up he hadn't thought much on the other man, not with other things to keep him occupied, Loki to keep him occupied to be specific. "He was pissed off when we talked on the field, seemed even more so during the briefing."

 

"So you're friendly with him? Do you know his motives?"

 

"I'm on friendly terms with him, yeah. And as far as I know there's no motive besides doing exactly what he's told, this is not something he can just get out of."

 

"He's a friend actually." Bruce corrected, ignoring Tony's eye roll. "How that works I've no idea, you two are too different."

 

"We're not actually." And they weren’t pieces of the same cloth so to speak, him, Loki and, to a lesser degree, Natasha. They were different but with enough similarities that they could get each other like few could. "There's not much so say about it, we get along now that he's not trying to take over the world."

 

"You sure about that?"

 

"Yes, unless he's trying to take over the world with his amazing raspy voice and the power of rock'n'roll. Otherwise there's not much he can do to take over anything." Tony snorted, he had managed - after weeks of messages back and forth - to wiggle out some of the more gruesome aspects of Loki's exile. Gruesome didn't even begin to cover it, and he knew Loki wouldn't try anything to void that exile. Unless he absolutely had to, and he didn’t want to see how the Trickster could get to that point.

 

Steve just shot him that look of his, the one which meant he found Tony insane and off his game, the one which Tony dutifully ignored.

 

(~o~)

 

"There's a favor I'd ask of you, if you'd be willing," Loki begun once he was alone with Natasha, Coulson had whisked Barton away and to his own debriefing as soon as he could.

 

"A favor," Natasha said, crossing her arms.

 

"Yes, about Amora. There's a slim chance we can end all this with no bloodshed from either part if you’re willing," he shook his head, not so much hopeful as careful to avoid conflict, Loki had no hope left, not anymore. Tony was a nice beacon in his life now, but that was all.

 

"Tell me," she demanded, looking at him through half lidded eyes.

 

"There's a code, a phrase actually that'll make her stop what she's doing and listen," he could only hope Amora wouldn't take it as a betrayal, "when she notices you, just bring her here, unharmed."

 

"I'll do what I can, but I cannot promise something that doesn't depend exclusively on me." Natasha said, face neutral, sensing perhaps this needed a delicate touch.

 

"I suppose that'll have to do," Loki sighed, rubbing his suddenly sweaty hands against his dark jeans, "tell her," he paused swearing, "tell her you come in the name of _cuprum Fire_ , to talk with the _Catharantus_.*"

 

Natasha nodded once, testing the names on her tongue. Latin was something she was used to, but to have such a random sentence, it was childish, it was incredibly childish. "She's your friend," she whispered with dawning realization.

 

"She is, yes," he agreed, shrugging, "one of my oldest friends. Second only to Thor, when he was still my brother," he shrugged, unrepentant. What was done was done and he wouldn't change it for anyone. This sort of freedom he found himself in was more than anything Asgard and his former family had ever done or allowed him.

 

"When you talk to her," he continued, "get her inside the Hulk cage, she'll be safe there and so will SHIELD."

 

"Save from what?" Natasha asked, somewhat baffled even as she kept her poker face.

 

"I can't say, not right now, but you will all be safer once she's there."

 

Natasha nodded, knowing that some things you just couldn't come right out and say it. She watched as Loki left her alone to prepare, even though there wasn't much to do. She repeated the phrase on her mind, _Cuprum Fire, Catharantus._

(~o~)

 

Loki came out with a tired sigh and for a moment Tony felt bad about bothering him. That moment passed quickly, however as the Æsir passed him by glaring, and Tony did a double take, quickly following on his heels, leaving Bruce and Steve behind.

 

Natasha, who had come out right after Loki, just blinked at the pair, for a moment just seeing a puppy after their owner, right after the puppy had bitten them.

 

Well in a way, maybe? She vowed to keep an eye on the pair, just in case.

 

(~o~)

 

"Loki, Loki wait!" Tony called after him, Loki's longer strides giving him an unfair advantage.

 

Suddenly the deity spun around, glaring at him with venom, even more than that time at the tower.

 

"You don't listen!" Loki snapped, advancing on Tony until they were almost nose to nose. Well nose to chin. "You never listen! You just have to ignore everything and do your own thing."

 

"What?" Tony frowned, baffled.

 

"I was almost shouting at you to not shoot the guy, we were about to take him! Subdue him and see how Amora got her hands on such a thing, but you just had to go ahead and ignore me!" Loki shouted, uncaring if anyone heard him, if anyone saw them.

 

"No you didn't!" Tony snapped back, glaring at the Trickster. "There was nothing on the comm! One moment the guy's saying his sob story, the next moment you're calling me an idiot!"

 

"Don't be a fool, Stark," Loki snarled and, fucking hell his name on the Trickster's lips as if it was a curse, his name said like _that_ , it bothered him. "Has your AI been absent for the 15 seconds it took for me to shout at you?!"

 

"Don't you dare! Everything was silent at your end! There was nothing!" Tony shouted, glaring virtual daggers at Loki.

 

"That's because communication was tampered with," came a dark voice from behind them, and the duo took a moment to glance around them, at a myriad of agents surrounding them, Steve about to step in when Fury held up a hand, walking up to them at a fast pace. "I've checked the comms, Loki, there's nothing on Stark's end. He might ignore orders, but not like this." Fury shook his head, giving each of them a look. "My office the two of you." He walked out without another word.

 

The two men just stared at each other for a moment longer. Each too proud to apologize for yelling and for wrong accusations.

 

Tony shook his head, walking out in front of Loki, the Trickster staring at him, his gut telling him he has lost yet another friend, his inability to trust others showing again, just as Frigga had told him.

 

He walked behind Anthony, head held high, one of his fists clenched to the point his nails were digging in his palm.

 

(~o~)

 

Natasha held back a sigh as she watched the scene unfold. The only thing she could come up with was puppies. Puppies for crying out loud!

 

She had seen the same behavior when Clint had Lucky and the dog was playing with two puppies on the street, how they were playing and then suddenly fighting, until Lucky had barked at them and they had mopped for a while until one of them started to pawn at the other.

 

It was the exact same behavior.

 

She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of an exasperated sigh, however. Natasha almost startled as she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder, turning to look back at Thor, who was looking towards the path the two idiots had taken. The Thunderer was silent, the burns on his face healing, but talking was still somewhat uncomfortable, Natasha could understand why he kept silent.

 

"The two of them, they're puppies," Natasha said to Thor's enquiring look. She had learnt to read him as they improved as teammates. He looked at her in disbelief, snorting despite himself and grimacing in pain, she patted his arm, telling him of the incident with Lucky, only to grin at Thor's pensive look.

 

(~o~)

 

"You two are idiots," Fury said as soon as they were behind closed doors. He moved to the floor-to-ceiling window, turning his back on them. It wasn't trust, it was respect. If they wanted to kill him, they could, but there was enough mutual respect for them not to. "That little scene downstairs was unseeded. What the hell happened?"

 

They were both silent for a moment, before Loki looked away, his left hand still clenched in a fist. "It was my fault, I thought he had ignored my order."

 

Fury hummed, turning back to them and looking at Tony, there was no need to prompt the engineer as he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes darting back to Loki, and then back again to Fury as he gave the man a careless shrug. "I got upset when he ignored me."

 

The director frowned at them before he rolled his one good eye, children, bunch of children. If Stark wanted to pull Loki's pigtails as the boy ignored him, then so be it. He wasn't interested and, as long as it wasn't a matter of world security, he didn't particularly care if Loki was another conquest on Stark's bed or vice versa.

 

"That sort of behavior is unacceptable on base," he finally said, sitting by his desk, grabbing one of the reports, "is you're having a lover's spat for whatever reason, do so on your own time, when you're out of here," he raised a hand to stall any arguments, "I don't care if you are of if you're not, keep childish discussions out of the hallways."

 

"Director," Loki started, the fact the prickly prick was talking to him at all was enough to make Fury abandon his paper and look at him, usually Loki avoided him, unless they were messaging each other. "About Amora-"

 

"If we can bring her in without damaging her or endangering lives, we will."

 

"Thank you," he sighed, relieved, "have you received my research on Amora's powers?"

 

"I have, out of those how many are similar to yours?" He needled.

 

"I'm not at liberty to say," Loki said, stiffing besides Tony. The inventor gave the Trickster and the Director a long look, enquiring, but Fury ignored him. It was enough that Stark had found out about his bet with Loki.

 

He dismissed them with a hand, scanning the report even as he paid attention to the two idiots as they left the office, closing the door softly behind them. The things Stark got himself into! And that prickly alien, the people he chose to associate with! Well it would be good for entertainment, at the very least, knowing people as Fury did, he could tell things between those two would go above and beyond anyone’s expectations, including his. Dicks, the both of them.

 

Fury sighed, focusing on the report.

 

(~o~)

 

"She's your friend." Tony said flatly, easily catching up to Loki this time as the deity wasn't actively trying to get away.

 

"She is," short, concise, not like the verbose Loki he knew.

 

"Where are you going?" Tony asked as he followed Loki around the unfamiliar path.

 

"I need a place to stay, do I not?" The Trickster asked him, glancing briefly at Tony, before going down another corridor.

 

"What? Why?" Tony asked, thoroughly confused, he looked at the set lips, the slightly trembling fingers. What the hell? On impulse he took Loki's arm, leading him to a room, and locking the door behind him. "What's going on? Why are you moving out?"

 

"Is that not what you want?" Loki frowned at him, arms crossed in front of his chest, hands holding on to his elbows, almost hugging himself, but not quite.

 

"No, why would I? We argued, briefly, why would I want you to move out?" Tony asked, crossing his arms back and looking at Loki through narrowed eyes. He had an inkling of the things going through Loki's head though, even if he didn't want to have.

 

It wasn't because he thought it wrong or felt pity, but he had had those same thoughts for a number of years before he met Rhodey. Feeling unwanted, a burden, and preferring to leave first than to be the one to be left behind, all behind a facade of bravado, cockiness and narcissism. Thinking you were the shit, the next best thing to sliced bread, the last Oreo in the package, when you really felt like the pile of dog poop rotting in the corner which everyone ignored and turned their noses away from. It had also taken years for him to get over those thoughts and to figure out the puzzling fact that he did matter, he was just as important, as a person, as any other living being.

 

Looking at Loki it was almost like seeing himself if he had never met Rhodey, no family, friends, and when you did, you had acquaintances, leaving first before they could.

 

"Listen," he started before Loki could come up with any excuse, "I like having you around. We're bound to argue and fight, I mean, I'm me, and you're you and we're both dicks," he shrugged, mentioning between the two of them helplessly. "Doesn't mean I want you anywhere else, you know."

 

"But-" Loki started, stopping in his tracks and looking at Tony, through slightly wider eyes. Tony, once again, had an inkling of what he had been thinking, it wasn't hard to imagine what was going through his mind, not if he recalled his first months on MIT.

 

"I want you in my house, Loki, I like you there, I like talking to you and annoying you with kindergarten physics," he smiled, impish, reaching for the other man's shoulder and squeezing it gently, his hand slid to Loki's hand, undoing the arm crossing and grabbing his hand with a gentle squeeze, dragging the Trickster out of the room. "Come on hot stuff, let's go home."

 

They were halfway down the hallway before Loki looked at him, enquiringly, "hot stuff?"


	4. Chapter 4

**TITLE:** Adamanteus

**AUTHOR** : Wynter Ravenheart

**ARTIST** : [dumb-ways-to-live](http://dumb-ways-to-live.tumblr.com/)

**PAIRING** : A little bit of Steve/Tony and a lot of Loki/Tony

**WARNING** : Liberal use of Superhusbands [Steve/Tony] as a stepping stone for Frostiron, Hurt/Comfort

**SUMMARY** : Adamanteus: of hard steel, iron, not to be broken. After his exile from Asgard - temporary as it may be - the last place Loki expected to find any of the Avengers is Amsterdam, granted the last thing Tony wanted after his unexpected break up with Steve was to find out that Loki was still alive and kicking, and hosting a radio show. It's not surprising they would have similar tastes, neither that they would be intimately aware of each other’s issues. Some people have got to find out that some bonds you just can’t break.

**A/N** : Some people named inside are actually real. No harm or disrespect is meant to them, the only intent is to show this as a version of our world.

 

SUPER thanks to the following people: Qwanderer for beta-ing the first 2 parts [I’m horrible, horrible, no good writer and I didn’t send the rest to her!] Hedwig-dordt for checking out my failed Dutch, I owe you something big! I’ve no idea what, but I do! Songofcatharsis for letting me pick up her brain for songs!

 

Speaking of which, if you want to check out the playlist for this fic, you can check out my Spotify: [Adamanteus](http://open.spotify.com/user/redraven85/playlist/0fNZZIh5Hra8szYHJdKnZg)

 

**Part IV: Under Pressure**

 

It was three days before they had any news. Natasha was still in Italy, mostly chilling from the messages back and forth with Tony, but Clint finally had news, the cargo he had been protecting had been attacked, finally, and they had had to step in.

 

It wasn't even Amora, but Loki did recognize the burly man from the video feed. It was a one man army, bellow Thor on fighting skill but the same hard punch, as Tony could attest to once he got close enough and had receive a fist to his metal plate, before the guy swung something that looked like a club at Clint.

 

Things didn't start like that, though, the cargo Clint has been shipped to had docked as planned, and the crew was just unloading cargo when the man arrived, he had been well-dressed, with a D&G tux that somehow fit his burly stature, the Mohawk was neat and done in such a way it reminded Loki, when he saw the footage afterwards, of how the Jotünn did their version of a 'hairstyle'. Wedges between shaved head, almost like horns.

 

The fight had started when Clint had talked to guy, explaining calmly that no, he could not have the Spheres, they were for studies purposes with the Geology department in the NYU, Skurge had attempted bribery with a few stones - a study later confirmed diamonds and rubies - but he had attempted to choke the archer when he had continued to deny Skurge's request.

 

Loki, meanwhile, had taken residence on Tony's former study and was slowly transforming that into his own studio, when he was not haunting Tony's workshop and flirting with him. Flirtation disguised as barbed insults of course because Loki was still Loki and he didn't give in easily, even though he wanted to.

 

When the Hawk had gotten away from Skurge, with an arrow to his elbow, things had gone downhill fast and reinforcements had to be called. With Natasha and Thor in Italy it was a reduced team that had taken hold of Skurge.

 

Loki was watching on the monitors provided by J.A.R.V.I.S., directing the team to lead the Executioner carefully away from the cargo and into the ocean. The nights spend with Tony on the lab had yielded results, mostly an EMP-resistant Lightning Rod that could deliver a charge of 2 watts with 3 mili amperes in a 30cm area without dissipation*. The aim was to stun an Æsir, but considering 1mili ampere could kill a human being, they had decided to up the velocity a bit, to help stun the aliens and, well, Skurge was the perfect guinea pig to test it on, especially if he was submersed in the ocean.

 

Currently Skurge was being driven back by the Hulk, while Hawkeye cleaned a path for him along with Captain America and Iron Man readied the Lighting Rod. It should've been easy. Should've, could've, would've, all damming words.

 

It seemed to happen in slow motion, that Skurge fell on the water, and Tony aimed and fired the Lightning Rod, and a second later the Hulk also fell on the water as the weapon hit both of them. There was a second of silence before the bodies collapsed in the water.

 

Tony stared in horrified silence as Hawkeye begun to scream for his lover. The sound seemed to come from far away as Tony looked on as the Hulk's green skin and mass receded, leaving only Bruce's body behind.

 

(~o~)

 

"Who's bright idea was this?" Fury asked.

 

They were at the local hospital, Skurge had been knocked out, and was in a SHIELD containment cell, the doctors looking over his body, but there was nothing wrong with the giant man, Bruce on the other hand, was a different story.

 

His body had no scars, no sign that anything had happened. Bruce was alive, Clint had thanked the Norns for that blessing at least, but Tony didn't know who to thank for Bruce's life but fuck he owed someone somewhere in the universe something big.

 

Something seriously big, but he only planned on paying when Bruce woke up. He refused to think in terms of 'when,' Bruce would have to wake up, it was as simple as that.

 

A shout from Clint and Fury got his attention back to the unanswered question, he could listen to Loki's voice coming from Fury's mobile, Clint yelling obscenities at him.

 

"It was our fault," Tony cut in, loud and clear. It was as if someone had hit the mute button, as Fury and Barton both turned at him. "It was our fault," Tony repeated, not afraid to take the blame, he was responsible for this mess, for the state Bruce was in, "Loki and I were working on a new weapon to properly stunt the Æsir and beings with the same body density, either stun or leave then unconscious. Since we were having so much trouble with Skurge, we thought it would be a good idea to test it. I only saw The Hulk topple on the water after I had fired the weapon."

 

"How was the weapon calibrated?"

 

"3 mili amperes," Tony replied, crossing his arms. He suddenly wanted Loki there with him, not to take the fall with him, he was enough of a grown up to know when he had fucked up and how much would the fall out cost. He wanted Loki there because, as he had come to find out and appreciate, the Trickster had a way of calming him down, of making him focus, of making him see the world in a such different way that some solutions seemed to come up naturally.

 

And he wanted that, needed that, Bruce had- Jesus!

 

"That's more than enough to kill a man," Fury said, leaning forward and just staring at Tony. It was one of those situations where, if the only collateral damage was The Executioner, he would've been more than happy to call it a win, but Bruce had been taken the fall as well. He knew not if it was because of the Hulk going after the Æsir or if something else was afoul. But this was far from a happy occasion or a complete win.

 

"So you're responsible for this. It just wasn't enough for you to bring that psychopath to live in the same area as us, oh no, you just had to kill my boyfriend, didn't you?"

 

"Clint,"

 

"No!" The archer shouted vibrating with tension, vibrating with hate, "I knew he was trouble when he came in, when he came back to Earth in an attempt to, to, to redeem himself. But then you just had to go and make friends with him, didn't you?" Clint sneered, and Tony steeled himself, whatever the archer had to say it wouldn't be pretty, "what did he do to convince you? Did he suck your cock? Or did you stick it up his ass as he begged for your friendship?"

 

"Barton," Fury snapped, glaring at him, he had hung up on Loki as soon as Clint had started his overdue rant. He could understand that, if he bothered to he could sympathize, but everything had been an accident, circumstances were to blame.

 

"It's true, isn't it? Right now he's only good as a fuck toy, worthless scum, that's all he'll ever be good, isn't it? That and killing people, just like you, Stark. You think you've changed, but the only thing you did was change targets." His voice was quiet, but it sounded like a shout on the room, the only noise the beep of the machine attached to Bruce.

 

"Get out, Stark," Clint said, his face twisting in a mix of rage and unbelievable pain. "I don't want to see you, I don't want you near him, least you finish killing him off."

 

"You think I actually wanted this."

 

"I don't know, did you?" Clint asked his voice dispassionate, uncaring. No that wasn't true, he cared, but about Bruce. Tony could see he was _persona non grata_ at the moment.

 

"You're not the only one who cares about him, Clint. You're just there trying to find blame because of what happened. And I get that, I accept full blame for what happened to him, but don't think for even a second that I wanted this!" Tony hissed, his legs strategically apart, it was to keep him grounded, not to a fighting instance, but so he wouldn't just punch Clint in the face for the litany he had spelt forth.

 

"That's what we call accidents, Barton, they happen, usually to those least want it to happen to. It happens, we get over it, we move on, vow to make sure that was the last one but you know it won't be, that's the life of an Avenger, and you better get used to it."

 

"Get out, Stark, you're not welcomed here," Clint hissed again, before shouting at Tony to get out. This time he went, shaking his head.

 

(~o~)

 

"Something happened," Natasha sighed fishing her cell out of her pocket. Thor was with her, had insisted upon it as a mean to deter the Enchantress if Loki's little trick didn't work. She was glad for the company, even if Thor was somewhat louder than she was used to. They had seen the church in which the painting was hanging, had put surveillance in the area to trigger should anything inhuman approached.

 

At that moment Natasha was introducing Thor to the wonders of Italian Affogatto, along with real, honest, Italian Tiramisu. Thor on a caffeine high couldn't be worse than on a sugar high, that was her reasoning.

 

"The church?" He asked, dapping his lips on a napkin before talking to her, Natasha still found his manners somewhat odd, but still better than the stunts he had pulled in New Mexico.

 

"No, something with Clint and Bruce," she scrolled up her messages, reading them quickly but with a critical eye. "Skurge went after the stones, and Loki and Tony decided to test a new weapon on him."

 

"Loki was in battle?" Thor asked, eyebrows going high.

 

"No, he was at the tower, but looking at the fight." She trailed off, her eyes going wide as she stared at the phone.

 

"Natasha?"

 

"Bruce was hit with whatever that was, he's in a coma right now. I'm sorry Thor, I have to call him." She didn't wait for an answer, walking out of the restaurant they were in to try and get a better reception. Mostly because all the Avengers and close associates knew that Thor's presence usually interfered with long distance calls.

 

Thor didn't have the heart to tell them their equipment was inferior, better leave the humans to think it was just magic related. He grabbed his own mobile, going through his contacts and sending a message to Anthony. As much as the Hawk needed support, he knew the fall out would be on Anthony and Loki, and he had been blind too many times to let this one pass, even if he would ignore the Hawk for a little while, but he had his spider on his side.

 

Thor had just ordered a round of cannoli for him and Natasha when the spider came back, grim faced. "What has happened?”

 

"The hulk was electrocuted, Bruce's in a coma right now, and they're not sure he's going to wake up." Natasha said, helping herself to the pastries. She had lost too many soldiers and fellow spies, compatriots in a way, to feel anything past mild sadness.

 

"Has Anthony or Loki come forth?"

 

"Yes," Natasha sighed, "Tony said it was an accident, the Hulk either fell or jumped into the water after Iron Man had fired the new device. Tony couldn't get to him in time to prevent it from happening." It was a cluster fuck of bad luck. If Natasha could make it better she would, but she couldn't.

 

Thor hummed thoughtfully, "accidents happen, even to the best Smiths, Bruce will either come out of this whole, or he won't. The fact he's even alive now is in his favor."

 

"I agree, but there's not much we can do to calm Clint down, and that's worries me. He loves Bruce and now this," she shook her head, sipping from her own cappuccino, making a face at the cold coffee; Thor just laughed at her, ordering a new cup.

 

(~o~)

 

Loki just looked up when he heard the bang and the litany of profanity coming from somewhere down below, part of him wanted to gloat, to go down and ask Stark how it felt to have your friends turn on you for a mistake you've made.

 

But he still remembered how Tony had reacted on the Hellicarrier, how he had chased after Loki and crushed his doubts before he could even utter them. He could do nothing but offer the same in return.

 

When he stepped on Stark's living room it was to see the man thrown on the couch, an unopened bottle of bourbon on his hand, a glass filled with ice on another and the face of someone facing their worst fears.

 

As Loki well knew, some fears were internal, just as some of his worse struggles had been with himself.

 

He didn't say anything as he approached, just taking the bottle and the glass and going back to the bar, ignoring Tony's token 'hey!'

 

"If I had free access to my magic," he begun, "I'd just remove the alcohol from these and leave you to your doom, but I don't, so I'm taking the bottle instead."

 

"Loki," Tony started, but with no clear idea of what he wanted to say.

 

Loki smiled at him, sincerely, tired, sad, he understood. The circumstances weren't the same, but he did understand. "Has Thor ever told you the story of the nine realms?"

 

"I - What?" He backtracked instead, rubbing his neck, "no, never." He wondered where this was going, the story of the nine realms? What?

 

"Come to the lab with me, then? I'd like to show you."

 

"Yeah, sure, but Loki, why would yo-"

 

"Great!" He clapped, taking hold of Tony's hand and dragging him to the elevator, ignoring Tony cursing slightly behind him. "J.A.R.V.I.S., could you ready the hologram input for me? We're gonna need it."

 

"Loki, what the hell's going on?" Tony asked, turning to face the Trickster, squeezing his hand, even if he couldn't damage Loki, not really at any rate, the impulse he felt to punch someone or something was almost overwhelming. Usually he had Happy, who helped him with training when he needed it, but now?

 

"I'm going to tell you the story of the nine realms and you're going to listen. It might help you understand some concepts I've been trying to drill into your head without you getting distracted." He gave Tony a pointed look, knowing when a student was getting distracted with particles of dust instead of listening.

 

That brought Tony short, what? He wanted to study now? What...?

 

They entered the lab, Loki going to the input table and sitting on top of it, after disengaging the keyboard and putting in on his lap. Tony, still infused, sat by him, staring expectantly at him.

 

"The story goes," Loki begun, darkening the workshop and putting one glowing orb in the middle of the room, manipulating technology as Tony did, "that in the beginning, there was only one planet in the entirety of the universe, thousands of times bigger than the V1489 Cygni you humans found. It glowed brightly in and of itself, all the beings living there were one with the land, with the same dark red skin as the soil, the planet was at the end of its life, however, and was contracting in itself, with wars between tribes becoming the norm."

 

"Contracting itself?" Tony asked, fascinated as the ball of light travelled through the workshop, "how is that possible?"

 

"Fusion of elements in a guarded environment, which fed on the planet itself," Loki answered rolling his eyes, human. "Anyway, the wars reached a point where they decimated the surface of planet, making the people have to live underground. It goes on to say that a particular war broke between two different tribes, making the planet collapse in itself, before exploding outwards."

 

"What we call the big-bang."

 

"Exactly." On the hologram green and gold lines started to crisscross the globe, easily getting into an intricate luminescent spider web. Before an implosion and outwards expansion happened, covering everything in fog. Tony could see bits and pieces of land-mass passing him by, like glowing rings.

 

"One ring to rule them all?" He smirked at the deity, moving to sit near him, acutely aware of the Trickster.

 

"No, not quite," Loki laughed, shuffling a bit closer to Tony, their fingertips touching, "the people had advanced devices with them and started to gather as much dust as they could in the hopes of constructing a new planet, they managed, at first, to create minor planets, there was no need for sun since everything around them was brilliant white."

 

Yeah, Tony could certainly see that.

 

"The original fight, wasn't between the Frost Giants and the Æsir by any chance, was it?"

 

"No, between the dwarves and the giants." He took Tony's hand, lacing their fingers and ignoring the intake of breath from the man. "They started to drift and the molecules in the dust started to form as Stars, as revenge the dwarves managed to, somehow, divide the Giants and put half of them as far away to a brown dwarf star as the gravity pull allowed and the other half as close to a blue hyper giant as they possibly could. Remember when I said that those people took the properties of the soil they were in?"

 

"Yeah, so they turned into a different species?"

 

"Pretty much, yes, the Æsir, before you ask," he smirked at the Engineer, wanting to call him his own, but knowing Tony wasn't, not really, "were in the middle of all the realms, and in possession of fertile lands and minds. Midgard, by contrast, was almost at the fringe, and with almost no living beings which were not primates and plants."

 

"So the Æsir were what? Scientists?"

 

"Yes, and they managed to start traveling between realms, it took eons before they mastered interstellar travel, and much longer than that before they could even conceive the bifrost. Midgard, was left alone, to grown on its own and to advance on its own. It was only in the last eight thousand human years or so that we even noticed there was living intelligent life here, thought communication was difficult since, as Odin and Frigga used to say, they offered themselves at a moment's notice."

 

"Offered for what?"

 

"No idea, but some of the travelers took them as sexual partners which was, I suppose, a factor that helped advanced the humans." Loki shrugged, those were the basics, something all Æsir children already knew by the time they were a hundred. That the humans had been left alone was both a blessing and a curse for them, a blessing because they weren't under Asgard's thumb, and a curse because of their flimsy lifespan. Thought Loki did admit that it had its charms, living such a short time.

 

"So, pantheons? They exist?"

 

"Sort of," Loki laughed, "what you call pantheons are the Vanir and some Æsir and elf-fork making an unsolicited visit. They had their fun with the Egyptians I think." Loki laughed at the disbelief on Tony's face, a mix of arched eyebrows, a tilted head and narrowed eyes. "The Egyptians taught them how to build pyramids, that's all the Elves have been building them for the last four thousand human years, or so I'm told."

 

"Taught them?" Tony's eyes narrowed even further, sending Loki into another fit of laughter.

 

"Yes, they've been inventing new, improved ways to build pyramids, and the last I heard some of them were looking forward to a trip to Midgard to show the Egyptians how they do it now. They're gonna be terribly disappointed." He smiled again.

 

"You're serious." Tony said, snorting, still in that sort of disbelief as if Loki was high and off his mind. Or just a particularly good Troll.

 

"Yes actually," Loki grinned back, getting a disbelieving smile out of Tony. "I like it when you smile," he whispered, turning away from Tony and looking down at his lap.

 

"I'm sorry, what?" He blinked at Loki, not sure he had heard what he had actually heard. Couldn't be, they were friends, just friends, weren’t they?

 

"It's nothing," Loki shook his head, dismissing his thoughts. Better not to dwell on things he couldn't have, _people_ he couldn't have. Better to dwell on whatever friendship Anthony was willing to offer, no more no less. "Are you better now?" He asked instead, leaning and staring into Tony's eyes, he'd know if the mortal was lying.

 

"I- I am actually, thanks," Tony smiled self-depreciating, the things Clint had said, the accusations, the disgust at him and Loki, they weren't even doing anything, were nothing more than friends even! It had all faded somewhat, lost in Loki's story, Loki's impossible story.

 

"So, what happened?" Loki asked, lacing his own fingers and letting them rest between his parted legs, dangling off the balcony.

 

Tony shook his head, not afraid to remember, but not eager either. But he owed Loki, didn't he? If the Trickster hadn't had intervened, he would be at the bottom of a bottle right now, breaking his longest record, to date, without a drink.

 

Swallowing the bile that threatened to rise on his throat, Tony told him. How their weapon worked perfectly - as far as he cared Skurge was locked up after being unconscious for close to three hours - how Bruce had also been affected, however he had no idea if his friend would even survive.

 

“Anthony,” Loki started, frowning at the human, “this is not about your, or me, it’s about Bruce. No wonder Barton was mad at you, my self-centered idiot.” He smiled, shaking his head.

 

Loki unknowingly repeated what Thor had told Natasha: the scientist’s chances were good, if he hadn't been killed at the time, it was only a matter of time before he woke up. Tony had no idea if Loki was lying or not, either way it was comforting to know he hadn't killed his friend, then what Loki had said caught up with him. Calling Tony his. It filled him with unexpected warmth as stared open mouthed at Loki.

 

(~o~)

 

For Natasha and Thor, the alarm rang in the early hours after Skurge's attack. Natasha, who had taken to stalking the area around the church, quietly slipped inside, getting on her knees, pretending to pray for a deity she didn't believe in.

 

She knew who Amora was at first sight, not because the supposed goddess had any sort of special aura, or because Amora had just started attacking people - in fact she was just looking around curiously - but because the name Loki had given her actually fit the woman to a T. Tall, luscious blond hair falling in waves on her back, a grass-green dress with pink and blue undertones hugged her figure modestly, letting all know she had voluptuous curves, but didn't care to show it.

 

It was yet another thing that Natasha liked about the Æsir - or Æsir raised as the case might be - the meaning of things was often literal with them.

 

Periwinkle indeed.

 

She observed as Amora looked around, curious if not a bit disdainful of her surroundings. She was alone, but then Natasha supposed that a being like the Æsir, who could easily break someone's spine without extenuating themselves, felt at ease and safe anywhere in the universe. Neither outright chaos nor destruction, just a couple taking a stroll on foreign land, the question was: why had they needed the Extremis/Kurse hybrid to begin with? It didn't fit their current M.O.

 

_'I can feel you observing me,'_ a voice whispered in her ear, soft, but as sweet as Habanero. It startled her enough to flinch, almost pulling out her weapon, _'you have Loki's trace on you.'_

Did she? Loki couldn't use magic, so how?

 

She approached the woman, steps deliberately slow, she could call Thor at any moment, she knew but still she waited. If the woman in front of her wanted violence, she would have had it by now. They stopped in front of the painting it was an odd piece: a globe, with a something resembling a metal stick, and two orbs, the sun and the moon.

 

"What has he told you?" She said, eyes still in the painting. Natasha could feel the weight of her attentions, though.

 

"A phrase only, that I come in the name of _cuprum Fire_ , to talk with the _Catharantus_."

 

Amora growled, speaking in a language Natasha had no hope of understanding. It sounded like Icelandic but it was rougher, the words blending in together so that her curses and swears - and it was always easy to spot someone cursing - blended together in a growl.

 

"Speak, then!" Amora said, her tone even sweeter than before. Natasha pretended she couldn't hear the tone, the anger on her face. "What was so important Loki gave you _that_ phrase?"

 

"Loki asked me to keep you safe, he gave me a task, to keep you in an special place, where you cannot be found."

 

"There is no place I cannot be found," she denied, for the first time looking at Natasha, blinking at her directly. "You're a redhead."

 

"I, yes?" She frowned, getting an amused laugh from Amora.

 

"Are you Loki's new beau? He has a thing for redheads, and that'd explain the sudden request," Amora smiled, impish, suddenly amused, and Natasha could see why those two were friends.

 

"What of intelligent people?" Natasha asked, getting an idea.

 

"Only if they can match him in wit, why?"

 

"Oh I need to show you something." Natasha smirked.

 

(~o~)

 

In the end all it had taken was the promise of listening and seeing Loki to get Amora away from the painting and into a SHIELD facility, thankfully.

 

One of the easiest missions Natasha had ever gone through!

 

"So what's going on with Amora?" Natasha asked on the phone, as she painted her toe nails a vibrant red. On her left was a feed from Bruce's hospital room, Clint was sleeping on the couch in the room while the machine beeped along with Bruce's heartbeats, on her left another feed, Stark's former study, now Loki's hideout, the trickster was browsing through his and stark's vinyl collections, Natasha could hear the 'flip-flip-flip' as he went through albums.

 

"She's looking for something called 'The Twilight Key,'" Loki sighed, showing an album cover to the supposedly hidden camera. "It's something that alters one's personal reality."

 

"Men at Work? Really? What are you putting up next? A-Ha?" She grimaced, "and what do you mean by 'one's personal reality?'" It was embarrassing how easy she could talk to Loki, this being their third time talking.

 

He stuck his tongue out at her, putting the record back and going back to flipping vinyl cases. "It means that I can alter something that affects me directly but has no direct impact on anyone else, say I want to alter my financial status and make myself a billionaire, I could, but I couldn't take that money directly from another person or from Central Bank. Say I want the power to destroy humanity, the wish wouldn't work, but-"

 

"But if you ask after the knowledge on how to build such a device it would give it to you."

 

"Yes, you can see why it was hidden away."

 

"Not enough, there's a _map_ showing the damn thing's location." She scowled again, putting the nail polish aside and gently blowing on her toes.

 

"There's always a map showing things." Loki snorted, "the ones who built stuff like these didn't want people just showing up and grabbing their stuff, it always has to stay hidden. I personally think they had awful memory and needed things spelt out to remember where they put their lost stuff."

 

"Makes sense, sort of. So why would they need the Kurse/Extremis hybrid?"

 

"They don't. If their only goal was to get the map and the spheres and go realm hopping searching for the Twilight Key, they wouldn't need anything relating to the Kurse." He took another album, holding it up to Natasha.

 

"So? Why the hybrid? Why now? And I'm rather fond of the Rolling Stones, good call."

 

"That's the million dollar question, isn't it? Why would they need it? Why make such a loud noise and send other people? Unless Amora had someone else pulling her strings, which is a scary thought." He dutifully ignored the Rolling Stones comment with an eye roll, everyone liked the Rolling Stones.

 

"Something to think about. Speaking of other people's stuff, how's Stark?"

 

On the other side of the work Loki blinked to himself, tilted his head and glanced at the camera as if it would have all the answers. What? Where did that come from?

 

"Fine, I think?" Loki said slowly, failing to see where Natasha was going with that sort of questioning. "Trying to find a solution to help Banner, but it's not a matter he can solve just with technology."

 

Natasha hummed on the other end, ending the live feed from Loki and setting down to watch Clint and Bruce, "he's persistent," she said, laying back, "if he finds something tell me, Clint's going crazy with this."

 

There was a silence in the other end, from Loki, from the shuffling of vinyl, the breathing on the other end. Natasha knew Loki did not feel guilt over New York, to the Æsir it was a necessity, it had had to happen. She wasn't privy on the details why it had to happen, but Natasha could make an educated guess.

 

"I will," Natasha wasn't at all surprised when he hung up on her.

 

(~o~)

 

"Any change?" Someone asked as the door opened. Clint rubbed sleep from his eyes as he looked at Steve. His captain was out of uniform, in civilian clothes, a stark contrast with the field clothing Clint still had on.

 

"None, the doctor said there's still time for him to wake up on his own, it's been barely twelve hours." Clint sighed, looking at Bruce. If it wasn't for the beep-beep of the machine he would have sworn Bruce was just sleeping, he had watched Bruce sleep enough times to not be comforted by the sight. That's not how his Bruce slept. He should've been face down, arms up and his legs slightly parted and bent like the number 4 figure. Jesus what a disaster. He couldn't be bothered to feel at all sorry for the things he had said to Tony.

 

"Did we at least get Skurge?" He tore his eyes away from Bruce, glancing up at Steve.

 

"We did, he's currently in confinement and we're waiting for Thor to get back so he can take Skurge back to Asgard, we're not chancing another accident." Steve sat on the couch Clint had obviously been sleeping in, taking in the sterile feel of the room, he knew Bruce would have hated it. "I brought you a change of clothes," he nodded to the satchel by his feet, leaning back on the couch.

 

"I don't need it, Bruce's gonna be out of here soon enough." The archer shook his head, eyes on the heart monitor.

 

"Clint," Steve started, only to be cut back by the man again.

 

"I don't need it, he'll be out and about soon enough and then I'm just gonna feel bad about this." He shook his head again, more forcefully. He couldn't leave Bruce just like that! What if he woke up and Clint wasn't there? Besides a shower and a change of clothing meant going back to the tower and he didn't want to see either of those bastards.

 

"Clint," Steve said, the deep commanding voice he usually used in the field. "It's a change of clothes, you don't need to go out, just go to the attached bathroom and change."

 

Oh. The bathroom, right, he didn't need to go out of the room, he didn't need to leave Bruce out of his sight, not really. "You'll watch him over for me?"

 

"Of course," Steve agreed with a smile, as soon as the arched was behind closed doors, however, it slid off his face like oil in water, and Steve could do nothing but burry his face in his hands. He could only look at the silver lining, that Bruce wasn't dead, that he had survived he just had to wake up.

 

The door opened again, carefully and almost silent but for the little freak and whine of its hinges, he looked up to the visitor, only to scowl as he saw Loki.

 

"What are you doing here?" He asked, polite, but with an edge of frost he was sure the Mischief Maker hadn't missed, but had ignored.

 

"Where's Barton?" Loki asked, leaning back against the door and crossing his arms. He had gotten a few looks at the tattoos - an Earth art he rather liked - visible under his shirt. He had underdressed himself, knowing full well that appearances mattered to the humans, if they saw a man with short hair, dressed in black pants and a shirt and a longer long-sleeved shirt underneath that had the Captain's shield printed on his shoulder, what else would they think but a fan visiting? And Rogers had rather established that he didn't really have an issue with his fans, if they didn't put others in danger.

 

"Why? Haven't you done enough damage?" And the Alien had. The invasion, the mind control of countless agents, _Bruce_ for fuck's sake. As far as Steve was concerned this was all Loki's fault.

 

Loki arched a finely shaped eyebrow, unimpressed. "It's because of that that I need to talk to him, he needs to understand a few things." For example why they were all cluttering about Banner's bed, as if the man was about to die at any second. He wasn't, when he had told Anthony the only thing he needed was rest, he had been serious. Banner's ability to support major injury and recover from it was astounding! - and he was rather looking forward to taking a sample from Banner's biological fluids to see what he could find - if the man had survived the initial shockwave to his being and was only unconscious, it was just because his body and mind needed time to put themselves together again. To Loki they were all overreacting.

 

From the corner of his eyes he saw the other door opening, the archer stepping out only to stop short and scowl at him. Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he was not about to have the same conversation _again._ And that was why he needed the humans to advance and quickly, the fact that Clint hadn't heard the conversation between him and the Captain was worrying.

 

"I leave for ten minutes and you bring this scum here, Steve?" Barton asked with a dark look at Steve.

 

"He didn't know I was coming," Loki replied before Steve could say a word, "I need to talk to you for a moment, put things in perspective." He arched an eyebrow at the man, he knew Barton didn't trust him, he didn't need to, not for this.

 

"Whatever you have to say you can say in front of Steve, I'm not going anywhere with you," Clint recalled that the last time he had been alone with Loki he has been put under mind control, had been forced to do things he had never thought he would, not again. "So?" He trailed off, eyes zeroed in on Loki. Watching his ever movement and by the nine he wanted to have his bow and arrows. He growled under his breath, he hated that some of Loki's thought patterns had remained, swearing by deities he had never even heard of before, taking comfort that if anything happened to any of them they'd go to Valhalla instead of Heaven. He loathed it.

 

Loki shrugged unconcerned, if he wanted to have this conversation in front of Rogers, who was he to say no? "Have it your way, but just be aware that what I have to say is for you, as that one's lover." He nodded at Bruce's still form. "He's gonna wake up, it might be today, tomorrow, a week or a month from now, but he's gonna wake up. Anthony obviously has not told you that, or you wouldn't still be by his bedside as if he's about to die." He did roll his eyes at that, ignoring the way anger simmered inside the two men. "If he hasn't died from the initial blast he's not gonna die now of all times." He put special emphasis on a certain word, noting with sick satisfaction how Barton seemed to almost sag at the news. The man might not trust him - with good reason! - but they had had a special connection for a little while, enough for the man to have special insight and be able to tell with 70% accuracy when Loki was lying or not.

 

"That's all you came to say, that Bruce's going to wake up eventually? How do you even know?" Steve asked, stepping up to Clint, standing to Clint's right and a bit to the front, arms crossed and fairly glaring at Loki.

 

"You want to listen to technical terms? You're not going to understand it, neither of you," he snorted derisively at them, "if you want an easy to understand explanation ask your resident God of Thunder, he's competent enough to make you understand."

 

"God you're so-" Steve started, only to be cut by Clint.

 

"That's all you came to say? If so you might as well go, I don't want you here, I don't trust you, if I could you wouldn't even be on earth." Sadly it wasn't his call, they were all aware of that, it wasn't a something any of them would have chosen if they could.

 

"No, it wasn't." Loki grind his teeth, it was another reason why he had wanted a private conversation. "It's about New York," he said, his arms behind his back and feet slightly apart, not a fighting instance, but he was ready in case they wanted a brawl.

 

"I never want to speak to you about New York," Clint snapped at the same time Steve's "if you're not gonna apologize you better shut your mouth."

 

Loki sighed, looking down and resisting the rather strong urge to remove their mouths altogether either physically or with Magic, resisting only because he didn't want the punishment that would come with it. "That's the thing, I want you to know, and I need you to accept that I'm not going to apologize for what I did to you or to the other agents or to New York. I don't regret it, not what I did, or how, only that the circumstances had to be there in the first place."

 

He shook his head, refusing to look at either of them, “you were collateral damage." Loki said, looking at a point over Clint's shoulder, "nothing more, nothing less. It wasn't personal, as much as I do remember you from Puente Antiguo, it wasn't nothing short of circumstances that brought you and I together."

 

"Collateral damage," he repeated, numb. "For what?"

 

"For my escape, the failed invasion, you name it." Loki said shrugging.

 

Clint could feel his temper rise, Loki said collateral damage but all he heard was games. He felt bile on the back of his throat, and tears of rage, he had been beating himself up since he battle and all the bastard had to say was Collateral Damage.

 

"You don't care, at all, do you? What you did, what you forced us to do."

 

"There's three humans I currently care about and you're not on that list," Loki said with a heavy sigh. He turned his back to them, opening the door.

 

"Loki," Steve called, glancing at Clint who had just turned his back to them and was back to looking at Bruce.

 

The Trickster stopped, not turning back to them, "don't come back here," Steve continued, "I don't want to see you anywhere near here."

 

Loki just shrugged, he wasn't planning on being back anyway, he closed the door behind him, leaning back. It was better this way, better for Barton to just hate him. He had liked the archer, he had honestly liked him, but he was already attached to enough humans, and he got attached so quickly too, damn his nature! He would rather the archer hate him than forgive him. Same with the other three.

 

He had the perfect way to make it happen too, and he would lose Anthony, Natasha and Nicholas. It was better that way. Natasha was too easy to talk to, too easy to fall for and had all the potential to become someone important to him, and they hadn't ever properly talked. That's how fucked he was. Nicholas... For all that he was the Director of SHIELD the man had become someone he trusted. They had the same end-game goal nowadays so it was easier to confide in him, and he knew the man's instance should he step out of line. An easy relationship.

 

Anthony though. It was ridiculous how easy the man had captured that elusive part of him that Loki had sworn to never hand over again. He was smart, too smart for his own good, he was way too important to remain with Loki. Easier to let them all go now then to feel the eventual betrayal that always happened. As the Norns had said: Loki wasn't supposed to get what or who he wanted, ever.

 

Loki knew what he had to do. Damn him.


	5. Chapter 5

**TITLE:** Adamanteus

 **AUTHOR** : Wynter Ravenheart

 **ARTIST** : [dumb-ways-to-live](http://dumb-ways-to-live.tumblr.com/)

 **PAIRING** : A little bit of Steve/Tony and a lot of Loki/Tony

 **WARNING** : Liberal use of Superhusbands [Steve/Tony] as a stepping stone for Frostiron, Hurt/Comfort

 **SUMMARY** : Adamanteus: of hard steel, iron, not to be broken. After his exile from Asgard - temporary as it may be - the last place Loki expected to find any of the Avengers is Amsterdam, granted the last thing Tony wanted after his unexpected break up with Steve was to find out that Loki was still alive and kicking, and hosting a radio show. It's not surprising they would have similar tastes, neither that they would be intimately aware of each other’s issues. Some people have got to find out that some bonds you just can’t break.

 **A/N** : Some people named inside are actually real. No harm or disrespect is meant to them, the only intent is to show this as a version of our world.

 

SUPER thanks to the following people: Qwanderer for beta-ing the first 2 parts [I’m horrible, horrible, no good writer and I didn’t send the rest to her!] Hedwig-dordt for checking out my failed Dutch, I owe you something big! I’ve no idea what, but I do! Songofcatharsis for letting me pick up her brain for songs!

 

Speaking of which, if you want to check out the playlist for this fic, you can check out my Spotify: [Adamanteus](http://open.spotify.com/user/redraven85/playlist/0fNZZIh5Hra8szYHJdKnZg)

 

**Part V: In-between Days**

 

The thing about the puppy dog eyes, that very few people seemed to realize, was that the more you care about them, the more their sad eyes affect you, so whereas Loki's sad eyes only had an effect on Thor a few years ago. Well now it seemed the sad eyes the trickster was giving him was literally pulling at his heart strings. Damn him.

 

"You know I can't." Tony sighed, rubbing his temples, all to escape those eyes. He thanked his luck that over time he had built immunity to Pepper's look, that woman could manipulate him easily when she wanted to.

 

"But-" Loki tried again, eyes wider, staring at Tony, his lower lip trembling slightly, green eyes and eyelashes wet.

 

"I- Loki-" he handed his phone to the Trickster, he puppy-dog look disappearing instantly only to be replaced by a look of unholy glee.

 

Yes, well, there went his Plants vs Zombies high score.

 

(~o~)

 

"So, Loki's hosting a 'radio' show?" Amora asked, her fingers making the quotation marks with a doubtful look. She had requested to be quest away from Thor, and Natasha had reluctantly agreed, keeping the Thunderer in a 2-mile ratio from them. So what would a spy show the would-be-conqueror's best friend? Why he part where he willingly worked for them, of course. Call it Natasha's revenge.

 

It had been about a week now since they had gotten Amora back in SHIELD, back in Malibu to be precise. Something about the air, the sand and the sea seemed to calm down the Æsir as a whole. In that time they had all heard what Loki had pulled with Steve and Clint, and Fury had banned Loki from going anywhere near the men. The only reason he could still walk a free man was because he couldn't arrest Loki for being a dipshit.

 

So yes, a little revenge for that stunt would actually appease Natasha, and she knew - after a week babysitting Amora - that the Periwinkle has a vicious sense of humor, especially when it came to Loki. Her reasoning had been that her best friend could take it, and Natasha believed her.

 

So by 10pm that night Natasha turned on her laptop, quickly finding Loki's station and tuned in listen. The 8-hour difference between them was more than worth it, listening to Loki, who was making the program live from Tony's stolen studio and was probably loaded with caffeine had the feeling of perverse satisfaction from Natasha.

 

<Hello and welcome to another day! My name's Lukke Walker and you're listening to our Memory Kiss! Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday morning, today we're facing a sunny day with a max of 17°C, lowest will be at 11°C with little to no chance of rain,->

 

As Loki continued with the forecast and traffic, Natasha glanced at Amora from the corner of her eye, only to see the woman holding back laughter. She turned to her fully, frowning in question.

 

"How he got himself a job as a master spy I'll never know, Loki can be so obvious sometimes it's painful," she said, her voice tingled with laughter, "Lukke? I mean really? Even that idiot Volstagg would be able to put it together who it is!"

 

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked, though she had an inkling what it meant. She did the same thing, using names similar to her own so she wouldn't be caught up by surprise when someone called a name expecting her to answer.

 

"I think you know what I mean," she smirked, a tilt to her head and a sincerely amused smile on her lips. "It's so obvious."

 

Natasha blinked at her, opening another tap on her browser and searching Germanic translations to 'lock', 'close' and 'shut.' Before sending a quick message to Loki on her phone.

 

She really hopped Loki didn't have any Hungarian listeners.

 

<And that was The Rolling Stones with Paint it Black, then we had Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears For Fears, now this is an song one of my friends is particularly fond of, Johnny Rivers with Secret Agent Man. This is for you Natalie.>

Amora just laughed at her when she heard the lyrics.

(~o~)

 

Loki sighed, tired. He loved working for the radio but the demands of being Lukke and being Loki was exhausting. When he had to be both at the same time it was even more so. If he could just use magic to leave a copy in the studio it would've been easier, but the punishment for such a thing was too much to chance some rest. This _was_ punishment after all.

 

The penthouse was dark, it was almost 4:30 in the morning and he needed something to eat or drink before he could rest. Despite the Captain's word and the ban from Fury he had to try something to get Banner blood and skin, if not saliva and tears. He had no hope of semen, mostly because he was sure Barton would find a way to kill him if he touched Banner sexually. That was the trouble with broken bridges, you had to find other ways to get what you wanted or needed.

 

It was such a pity he had to do what he had to do, but he couldn't go through the sort of betrayal Natasha, Tony and Fury were capable off.

 

He looked around, scanning for the needed ingredients and grabbing milk and chocolate. If anything it would kick in a few hours and give him the needed energy. He was just adding the chocolate when the soft footsteps coming from the elevator. Right, Anthony had had a function to go to that day, fundraising about something or other. He was always amazed at how humans could take care of their own and, at the same time, allow such poverty and disgrace on their own back yard.

 

"Loki?" Tony's voice came from the living room, approaching the kitchen quietly. He waited until his eyes adjusted to the dark to finally see Loki. As usual he was in his pajamas, green and black and barefoot. It warmed him up to see Loki like that, acting as if the place was his, acting as if he belonged there.

 

He loved the sight.

 

He was in trouble, he was in so much trouble. For once it wasn't just his own fault, oh no, he had noticed the looks Loki had been giving him, he had even tried to ignore the way his stomach contracted and the fluttering of butterflies.

 

It hasn't worked, of course it hadn't worked, not when Loki was so close to him, not when the Trickster matched him in wit and showmanship, but he had seen Loki close all the walls around him and burn all the bridges he possibly could, he knew his time would come up sooner or later, but he would fight the Trickster if he had to. He was screwed.

 

"What are you doing snowflake?" He murmured, this time of night, the company, all of it demanded quiet. He let a hand slip to the others hip, just holding on. The warmth of Loki's body almost against his, almost but not quite.

 

"Snowflake?" Loki asked, his eyes almost sliding shut from tiredness and the proximity with Tony. He needed to distance himself, Tony was dangerous. He made no move to get out of the half brace thought.

 

"It fits you," Tony shrugged, watching the beverage being made. He was still smelling of perfume from others, cigars, smoke and drinks, while Loki was scrubbed clean smelling faintly of something fruity from soap. "Wait for me? I need to change from the suit." He waited for Loki to think about it. Think and nod before dashing to his room and putting on his own version of PJs: a black tank top and loose flannel pants.

 

When he entered the kitchen again, half afraid that Loki was no longer there, he saw Loki was sitting quietly on the counter, the hot chocolate held in his hands as he stared at the night outside. The kitchen had a wonderful view of the living room with its floor to ceiling windows, courtesy of Pepper.

 

He hopped on the counter next to Loki, his fingers touching the man's thigh. He couldn't just stop touching Loki right then. He didn't want to, but Loki was stiff beneath his fingers.

 

"Why do you always do that?" He asked, putting no inflection in his voice.

 

"Do what?" He replied quietly.

 

“Whenever I touch you, you’re uncomfortable, you’re stiff, and not in the way I’d like you to be.” Tony said quietly, the shadows played games with his vision, making him see Loki smile wishfully at him. But that couldn’t be real, not really.

 

“I’m not used to being wanted, Tony.” Loki sighed, staring down. He wanted, by the nine he wanted, but he couldn’t have Tony, not really.

 

“We want you,” it was safer that way, as much as he was aware that Loki did really want him as much as he wanted the Trickster, but if something was holding him back.

 

"No realm wants me, Stark." Loki said quietly, the cup of hot chocolate on his hand a focal point, "it's something I eventually came to terms with. I decided that I'm better off alone."

 

"That's bullshit." Tony said, sitting on the counter next to Loki, the kitchen was dark, only the artificial light from outside. He wanted to say he wanted him, that he was more than welcome to crash and burn in Tony's penthouse for the rest of his life, but he knew Loki wouldn't accept even a tenth of what he was offering.

 

As if confronting a small, frightened animal, Tony put his arm on Loki's shoulders, drawing him nearer, until the Trickster could rest his head on Tony's shoulder.

 

"This is nice," Loki said, taking careful sips of his hot drink.

 

"Yeah, it is," Tony agreed, petting Loki's short hair.

 

"I mean it when I say no realm wants me, you know?" Loki whispered, wanting to seek comfort, but not wanting too much of it, least the human also think he was taking too much. "Asgard... well you know what happened with Asgard."

 

“Punishment, and then you disowned them?”

 

“That’s the basic. I was tired of just being their scapegoat, I was the excuse if something went wrong, even Frigga – “

 

“That was your former mother, right?” It was still odd to call someone a former parent, but it seemed to calm Loki down somewhat. "What about that other place you talked about? Yote-something? Thor told us a while ago that you came from there."

 

Loki snorted, a small smile playing on his lips, "Jotunheimr. They never wanted me in the first place."

 

"Says who?" Tony whispered back, unable to imagine any who wouldn't want Loki. His friend was brilliant, witty, and sarcastic. Loki could be a little shit but he could also be downright adorable, with a thirst for knowledge and a curiosity that was parallel to Tony's own, if not Bruce’s. Alright so he was entirely bias when it came to Loki being adorable, but who could blame him?

 

"I do. The same ritual I performed with my former family? Was performed by the Jotünn, that's how I knew it existed in the first place." Loki shrugged, using it more as an excuse to snuggle with the human next to him.

 

"That's fucked up, why?" Tony asked in horrified wonder, his questions more of horror and disbelief, he wasn't expecting an answer.

 

"Because I failed in my purpose to Jotunheimr," Loki said and Tony could recognize that hollow voice, the one where Loki tried to shut down all his feelings in a tight ball and spoke despite it choking him. It was incredibly familiar. "I found it interesting when I first visited, after my parentage became known throughout the realms that they have a custom in Jotunheimr." Meaning that whatever had happened Loki had expected different, had built his hope to something that didn't happen.

 

"In times of war they choose the weakest babes, the ones that held no promise of magic, the bastards from the main line of Jotunheimr, and offer them up in sacrifice to the land, to strengthen their shields against enemies."

 

"You were one of them." Tony said quietly, the sheer horror of it making him want to throw up.

 

"I was, I failed."  A statement, a fact. If Tony could hurt the ones that had put that deep sense of worthlessness in Loki he would

 

"You were an infant! How could you have failed?" Tony managed to get out between gritted teeth.

 

"The shield consumes the lives of the babes with the help of the Casket, apparently I would not let myself be consumed of something." Loki shrugged as if apologetic.

 

"You failed because you have inane self-preservation?" Tony asked turning to the trickster. Loki just shrugged, helpless, as if what had happened had been an accident and not his own willpower to live.

 

"That's not how it goes Snowflake," Tony said, dislodging Loki from his shoulder and turning to him, holding the Trickster face with his hands, "we don't discard people because they were too badass too conform to the role originally given to them," he rubbed Loki's cheeks, moving closer, foreheads touching. "You don't throw people away because they're not the way you imagined them to be, because they don't follow the path laid out for them. You love them, you treasure them, and you’re important, too damn important."

 

"No, I'm not, Anthony, I told you that." Loki denied, avoiding Tony's eyes.

 

"Yeah, you spoke of realms, Snowflake, but you don't have to be important to an entire planet to be important." Tony grinned at him, bumping their foreheads, the trickster scowling at him. "You're important to me, and to Nat, but in not the same way."

 

"What?" Loki asked, confused, this whole conversation making him uncomfortable and not up to his usual standards.

 

"Do I really have to spell it out for you?" Tony sighed, but he was smiling.

 

"Just this once?" He asked, almost begging, eyes down on the now lukewarm cup resting in his leg.

 

"You're like a whirlwind, you know?" Tony said, raising the trickster's face, "you show up, wreck everything, you put my very being on fire and I just can't stop looking at you, to see what you're going to do next, how you're going to capture my heart next. You're one of the smartest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and you know I don't say that lightly." He closed the inch or two between them, tasting Loki's lips, the taste of chocolate making him suck lightly on Loki's lower lip. "Light of my mind, fire of my loins." He quoted* between kisses. “Deity of my wanking fantasies.”

 

Loki snickered against Tony's lips, giving in and kissing him over and over again, something he had craved for a while now. They kissed like they talked, curious, intense, with sharp bites and warm caresses, inquisitive, questioning tongues and soothing answers.

 

They parted like they did everything else, lingering, quietly, smiling.

 

“I want to show you just how important you are,” Tony said, putting the cup away. “Can I?”

 

“Tony – “ Loki started, only to be silenced by the tip of Tony’s fingers.

 

“Not sex, that’s not what I want from you, just, sleep, please?” He was left feeling like an idiot, fantasizing not only with an impossible deity, but just of holding his close. They were idiots, infatuated idiots.

 

It was as they were getting themselves comfortable that Loki was reminded of his plans. He couldn’t remain here, he couldn’t remain with Tony, he wanted, but it would be better for both of them if he just let Tony go.

 

“Whatever you’re thinking about, let it go, snowflake.” Tony whispered, stealing another kiss. He wouldn’t get tired of tasting him.

 

“Make me forget, then, because I can’t.” He whispered against Tony’s lips, silently begging the inventor to claim him.

 

(~o~)

 

Amora sighed, counting the seconds. Romanoff was asleep in her room and there was nothing to do but count the time.

 

They had to time this perfectly.

 

One-two-three

 

One-two-three

 

One-two-three

 

Loki should be asleep now, it was after 5am in New York, where he was staying with Stark, and in that form it would be easy to use his magic, bound as it was. She only hoped Loki would find it in him to forgive her, but desperate times did call for desperate measures.

 

“Regardless of what happens, I’m sorry.”

 

(~o~)

 

Ezequiel Stane stood in front of the tower, the breaking dawn of the new day making him smile.

 

The woman – the Enchantress – had promised him Stark Industries, had promised him the revenge against Stark himself, all in exchange of her friend.

 

That had been easy to accomplish, especially considering the codes she had given him. A tweak and Extremis had been invincible. It had beaten Stark, the giant green monster, and the rest of the Avengers. Easy.

 

Now all he had to do was wait for the right time, for them to all to sleep.

 

It wasn’t even about revenge, Ezequiel had never liked his father much. This was all to see if he could do it, if he could surpass Stark and take his rightful legacy.

 

It had been pitifully easy to do it.

 

(~o~)

 

Tony had made him forget, at least for a while. The scorching kisses, the heated touches, the way their bodies fit with each other. He could still feel Tony inside him, still hear the litany of prayer his mortal had uttered in the high of passion, it was connection he had missed.

 

He turned around, the light of dawn was making the room brighter, making it easier to see Tony. He dropped a kiss on his head, lingering, feather light. “Is it wrong that my heart belongs to you, so soon? Is it even too soon? We move too fast, you and I.” He whispered to himself.

 

It was probably reckless of him to try, but he had to, if he would tear down the bridge with Tony, he wanted to have a connection still, faint though it would be.

 

The nicked his thumb open with a nail, doing the same with Tony’s and pushing the bloodied prints together. It would be a connection to Tony, the last one Loki would ever make.

 

(~o~)

 

“So, what’s the plan?” Ezequiel asked, arms crossed.

 

“I know you’re rather big on the whole bloodshed thing,” Amora said wrinkling her nose. “But this requires an Áss’ delicate touch. They’ll disappear, into Loki’s mindscape, he’ll be the one to bare the fallout, if he ever wakes up.” She Stepped to the place Loki was in, smirking at the entwined limbs of the two men. Well at least Loki would have nice dreams!

 

She snapped her finger, the scuttling noise of tiny scabbed feet making her close her eyes.

 

She didn’t notice Loki turning around to look at her, eyes wide in horror.

 

She didn’t notice drops of blood on Loki’s hand.

 

She didn’t notice him uttering words of Power and some of the black tattoos on his arms flaring with light even as he tightened his hold on Tony’s hand.

 

She only heard the snapping of powerful jaws and when she opened her eyes Loki was alone in bed, the form that had once been Tony Stark disappearing as if it had never been.

 

Across the world the rest of its protectors slowly disappeared as well.

 

Steve and Sharon, snuggling on the bed, had only left a dent.

 

On Bruce’s hospital room the machine started to beep in distress as it no longer picked up any heartbeat, once the staff checked, both the sick man and his companion had disappeared.

 

Thor, who had been resting on a SHIELD safehouse left only the messed up sheets for the next agent to pick up, Mjolnir wouldn’t budge from the table he had left her on.

 

Natasha gave one last sigh as she turned on her bed.

 

Nicholas Fury leaned back and closed his eyes, he had been enjoying a cup of bourbon. The cup fell on the floor once there was no one left to hold it.

 

“It’s done.” Amora whispered. Now all she had to do was pick up her payment from the boy and she could get her deepest wishes, easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End notes:  
> 1 - De Laatse Kruimel, in Amsterdam, never been to myself, but I read it's absolutely sinful!  
> 2 - Eugène is a real person! So kudos to him for leading the UNSC!  
> 3 - European Organization for Nuclear Research, awesome, awesome place!  
> 4 - Cuprum Fire: Copper fire, copper sulphate emits green flames. Catharantus is a type of flower commonly known as Periwinkle.  
> 5 - For those of you unfamiliar with electricity: think of Voltage (watts) as a tangible thing, like a car or a pinball. The Ampere is the speed that unit travels. At 1mili ampere (that's 0,0001amp) the pinball would be lodged into your skull, and you wouldn't even know there was a ball coming your way to begin with.  
> 6 - "Lolita: Light of my life, fire of my loins." - Lolita (1955)
> 
> Yes this is really the end, yes I am ending this in a cliffhanger. Why? Because it was too freaking long for the bang! D:
> 
> Also had some issues with AO3 formatting. Ah well it's 12am somewhere in the world.


End file.
